


Moments In Time

by RaeDMagdon



Series: The Best Entertainment [27]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/F, Family, Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-12
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-03-22 13:03:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 28,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3729955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaeDMagdon/pseuds/RaeDMagdon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The continuing adventures of Lycoris Tevos and the T'Soni-Shepard girls as they grow up and figure out their place in the galaxy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Liara explains to Benezia about Thessia (PG-13)

**Author's Note:**

> A place for all the small vignettes in my head about Lycoris and the T'Soni girls as they grow up. This story will update sporadically and jump around in time a lot. Each chapter should be able to stand on its own. Many members of Shepard's old crew will make appearances.

"Seriously, Mom? Do I have to?"

The line of Liara's shoulders tensed and her fingers curled tighter around the steering wheel of the skycar. "Yes, you have to," she said, summoning what little patience she had left. Her youngest was always a handful, but this afternoon, Benezia seemed determined to wear on her last nerve. It had started this morning, when she had refused to leave the bathroom after her allotted time, and come to a head on the way home from school. "Your father cleared her schedule to meet you at Armax Arena, and that's where you'll be going."

Benezia let out a dramatic sigh, and Liara caught a glimpse of her eyes rolling on the rear display screen. "But what's the point? It's not like I'm going to be a commando when I grow up."

"Right, like you have what it takes to be a commando," Diana snorted from beside her. "You wouldn't last a day out in the field."

"I would too! Remember who won our last match?"

"Only because Dad was on your team…"

"The scoreboard doesn't lie, Diana. You got your nose rubbed in it, Miss Wannabe Huntress."

The knot in Liara's chest pulled tighter. Her daughters' bickering didn't usually bother her, but today, their argument seemed tense instead of playful. To her surprise, Athena interrupted before things could get out of hand. "Can the two of you shut up? I'm trying to read this message from Corrie."

"Damn it, The, can you even go a few hours without saying her name?" Benezia huffed. "Corrie this, Corrie that, blah blah blah. You just saw her at the embassy. If you love her so much, why don't you marry her?"

Loud, smacking noises came from the back seat, followed by an exaggerated cry of pain. Liara didn't even need to check the screen to see what had happened. "No biotics in the car, girls," she said, trying to summon what remained of her frayed patience.

"Sorry, Mom," Athena said from the back seat. The apology was grudging, but it did the trick. Her daughters remained blissfully silent for the next two minutes.

Unfortunately, the peace didn't last. "This is such a waste of time," Benezia complained. "I've got more important things to do. Unlike these two losers, I actually have a social life. But do I get to hang out with my friends like a normal person? No. Instead, I have to spend all day listening to my history tutor ramble about Dad like she's some kind of Goddess made flesh while the whole class stares at me, and then instead of going to the Presidium with everyone else, I have to do combat training. What's the point? It's not like there's another race of machines out there waiting to harvest us."

This time, the silence that filled the skycar wasn't peaceful. Without saying a word, Liara pulled into a different lane and reprogrammed their destination. They were only five minutes from the apartment anyway. She had been hoping to delay this moment, to give her youngest a few more years of freedom and peace. It was the reason she had sacrificed so much during the war, so that a new generation of asari children could grow up free of fear and loss. But if Benezia was old enough to ask the question, she was old enough to receive a proper answer.

"Hey, where are we going?" Benezia asked, gazing out through the side window. "This isn't the way to the arena."

"No, it isn't. You and I are staying home today. Your sisters can go without us."

"Really? Great! It's about time I got an afternoon off."

"Mom?" Athena asked in a soft, hesitant voice. "Are you going to…"

Liara remained silent, but she looked around the side of her seat and gave a small nod. A shadow fell over Athena's face, and Diana cast her eyes down into her lap. Neither of them challenged Benezia or started any more arguments until they arrived at Tiberius Towers. The car came to a stop, and everyone climbed out, Benezia more enthusiastically than her sisters.

"So, do I have to stay home, or can I go to the Presidium? If I hurry, I can still meet everyone before…" She suddenly seemed to realize both of her sisters were looking at her, and her brow furrowed. "Why are you all staring at me like that?"

Instead of answering the question, Diana turned toward Liara. "Do you want me to send Dad home? Athena and I can practice on our own."

Liara stroked one of her hands down the side of Diana's arm and gave her a reassuring smile. She looked so like her father, especially when she was concerned. "Thank you, but no. I'll talk to her later. Benezia and I need some time alone."

Although Diana and Athena gave her worried looks, they followed her instructions without protest. The two of them started off down the strip and disappeared into the crowd while Benezia watched in confusion. "What's going on?" she asked, turning back with a frown. "They look like they've seen a ghost."

Liara took a deep breath. Benezia's observation was more accurate than she knew. "Come with me," she said, pressing gently at the small of her youngest daughter's back. "We need to have a talk."

Benezia's confusion turned to nervousness. She dragged her feet as they entered the building, only following reluctantly. Liara tried not to let her own reluctance show on her face as they took the elevator up to the top floor. Even though she had done this twice before, she still didn't feel prepared.

At last, they arrived at the apartment. Liara gestured for Benezia to sit down on the living room couch, and she obeyed, eyes darting nervously back to the door. "I'm sorry about what I said earlier, Mom. I was an ass. I know you and Dad are busy, and you just want to spend time with me..."

"It's not that simple, Benezia," she said, removing her gloves and tucking them into her pocket. "Yes, that's one of the reasons your father and I train with you and your sisters, but it isn't the only reason. You're old enough to understand."

Benezia's look of confusion returned, and her lips twitched down into a frown. "Understand what?"

Liara stared at Benezia for several long moments. Although she didn't have Shepard's eyes like Athena or her broad shoulders like Diana, she could still see so much of her bondmate in their youngest daughter. Her heart ached, and she reached out to cup Benezia's soft cheek. "I'm going to share a memory with you. I've already given it to your sisters. Now, you're old enough to see for yourself."

"You want me to see your memories? Which ones? What are you going to show me?"

"It's difficult to explain. Meld with me, and I'll guide you."

Benezia hesitated, but at last, she dipped her head in acknowledgment. "Okay."

Liara let her hand fall from Benezia's cheek and cupped the side of her neck instead, caressing the folds there and making sure her palm was pressed against skin. "No matter what you see, please remember that you're safe." She inhaled one last time, gathering her courage and preparing for the pain she knew would come. "I love you, my Little Wing. Embrace Eternity!"

_Fire. Showers of sparks rain down above her head. She ducks, rolls into cover, but even the sound of gunfire isn't enough to drown out the screams. Shrill, otherworldly screams from the twisted versions of her own people._

_"Banshee, stay back!"_

_But the warning doesn't come soon enough. Before she can fling the energy swimming along her arms, her feet leave the ground. Cold claws curl around the back of her head. Black eyes. Rotting teeth. Grey, twisted flesh like dying branches. She struggles, tries to fire her pistol, but it isn't enough. She's going to die… Please, Goddess, just let me die. Don't let me become one of these things..._

_A shockwave of energy rips her from the monster's arms. She goes flying, lands hard on her back in the rubble. Shepard is standing over the creature's corpse, pulsing with blue light._

_The memory flickers out. She feels Benezia's consciousness tangled within hers. Breathless, terrified. Heart pounding too fast. And even though it hurts, even though it goes against her every instinct as a mother, she continues._

_"I can't shake them! Talon 5, going down. I repeat, Talon 5 goi- aaargh!"_

_The sky blooms crimson, edged with black smoke. The gunship spirals toward the ground, exploding in a brilliant blaze. Tears sting her eyes, but she blinks them away. Her pistol barks, firing at the horde of oncoming husks. But bullets aren't enough to stop them. She summons her strength, her rage, and sends them back with warp after warp, determined to spill blood for the commandos who died to carry her this far._

_'Mom?' Benezia's voice, afraid but hopeful. 'Did she...'_

_'Yes. Aside from your father and our squadmates, no one we fought with that day survived.'_

_"...nyone on this frequency? This is Lieutenant Kurin. My squad is trapped!"_

_"This is Shepard. Give us your location!"_

_"I repeat, is anyone on this frequency?"_

_"We read you. Give me your lo-"_

_"The Lieutenant's down, our whole zone is collapsing! What happened to Shepard? Did they make it to the temple?"_

_"I saw them… wait, I've got a Reaper inbound! Ahhhhh!"_

_She looks into the sunset as shadows fall across the sky. Giant arms reaching beyond imagining. The bright flare of light that always means death._

_"Please? Is anybody there? Goddess, no-"_

_Silence. The radio cuts out._

At last, the meld ended. Liara removed her hand from Benezia's neck, blinking the blackness from her eyes. She opened her arms, and Benezia fell into them, shuddering and shaking and sobbing into her shoulder. "Mom... what… what was that?"

"That was Armali during the war," Liara said. Her own eyes were damp, but she focused her attention on comforting her daughter. "Only a few minutes away from our estate. You've been to the temple many times."

"And all those people… the thing that almost killed you…"

Liara ran her hand up and down Benezia's quivering back. "The lucky ones died. The unlucky ones became Banshees. I know you've been told that the Reapers used our own people against us, but you needed to see. Needed to understand."

Benezia remained silent for a long moment. "What about Earth? Were things there just as bad?"

"Worse. Your father's homeworld suffered even more losses than Thessia. The horde of monsters you saw coming after me are what the Reapers did to her people. During the final battle on Earth, I climbed over so many corpses that they stopped registering."

"I didn't know." Benezia pulled away from her, still unsteady. She braced one elbow on her knee, and the other arm came up to brush her tears away. "I'm so sorry."

"I wish I hadn't needed to show you, Little Wing. It's a memory I would love to bury. But I can't afford to forget. The galaxy can't afford to forget." Liara reached out, resting her fingers over Benezia's shaking hand. "Why don't you go upstairs and lie down? Both of your sisters needed the rest of the afternoon to themselves after I shared Thessia's loss with them."

"I… yeah. Okay." She stood on shaking legs, but hesitated before leaving. "Mom? Will you send Dad up when she gets home?"

Liara nodded. It wasn't at all surprising that Benezia would want to see her father after what she had witnessed. "I'll make sure she checks in on you."

"Do you think she'd meld with me, too? You know, if I asked?"

The question tapped into a well of emotion. The fact that her daughter saw the importance of her history despite the horrible things she had witnessed touched her. Liara stood, drawing Benezia into her arms. "I am so proud of you, my love. Yes, your father will meld with you. And not all of her memories of the war are bad ones. Some are beautiful. Ask her to show you how she cured the genophage, or how she brought the quarians back to Rannoch and reunited them with the geth. In fact, ask your Uncle Wrex and Aunt Tali to show you the next time you see them. I'm sure they would be honored to share it."

"I've seen Diana meld with Aunt Ashley before," Benezia said cautiously. "Is that why?"

She nodded. "One reason, yes. Ashley has shared a great deal of her memories with Diana, good and bad. Any of your Aunts and Uncles would do the same for you. When you feel ready, ask them."

"I will." Benezia untangled from her arms and stepped away, wiping away the last of her tears with her sleeve. "Mom… I'm proud of you, too. For saving the galaxy with Dad."

Liara laughed. "So, I've finally found the secret to earning my daughter's approval. And it only took saving the entire universe to do it. Go upstairs, Benezia. I'll tell your father to check in on you later."

With one last look, half smile and half sadness, Benezia turned and headed for the stairs. Liara sat back down on the couch and closed her eyes, leaning her head back. Her relationship with her youngest daughter wasn't perfect, but it was always loving. Beneath the self-centeredness that so often came with youth, Benezia was growing up to be an admirable woman.

Liara broke from her thoughts when her Omnitool vibrated around her wrist. She opened her eyes and answered the call, pulling up Shepard's image on the glowing orange screen. The concerned expression on her face reminded Liara of Diana's worried frown from earlier. "Hey there. The girls told me why you kept Benezia home. Are you both okay?"

"Yes, Shepard. Benezia handled it as well as I could have hoped. She showed an interest in learning more about what happened during the war. Don't be surprised if she asks to join with you sometime in the next few days. And you might want to invite Miranda over for a visit soon. She and Benezia have always been close."

Shepard smiled, but the wrinkle in the middle of her forehead didn't disappear. "And what about you? How are you holding up?"

Liara sighed and closed her eyes. The first time she had shared her memories of Thessia, she had barely held herself together long enough to comfort Athena and send her to bed. Afterwards, she had collapsed in Shepard's arms and cried herself to sleep. "I'm fine, I promise. Picking the wound open again always hurts, but it heals faster every time. I suppose practice has made it easier."

"Okay. But I'm still putting you in a hot bath when I get home and fixing you a glass of wine."

Her shoulders drooped at the thought of sinking into the warm water, and she smiled. "Only if you join me."

"What, you think I'm going to let you have the jacuzzi all to yourself? Of course I'll join you. The girls and I will be home in a few minutes, okay? I love you."

"I love you, too."

The call ended, and Liara switched off her Omnitool. Her memories of Thessia still lingered in the corners of her mind, but instead of faltering, she allowed herself to feel grateful. Grateful that she was alive. Grateful for her wonderful bondmate. Grateful for her three beautiful daughters, and her large extended family. This was what she had fought for. What so many had died for. And though she would never forget the cost, their hard-won victory was worth it.


	2. Ashley teaches Diana how to drive (PG-13 for language)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now, for something much more lighthearted. Diana learning to fly! If you've ever seen the Bob's Burgers episode where Tina crashes into the only car in the parking lot... well, Diana's not much better.

"No, wait, you've gotta… Here, let me." Ashley leaned over in the passenger's seat, reaching past Diana to fiddle with the holographic dash. "You can't gun the accelerator before you start moving. You'll fry the engine that way." She noticed the blinking red light beside the steering wheel and sighed. "How did you even manage to turn the stabilizers off? They're supposed to come on automatically."

Diana shrugged and flashed her an awkward smile. "To be honest, I'm not really sure what I did. Mom showed me which buttons were which, but I guess I mixed them up."

"You're fine, kid. Let's give flying a try, nice and slow. Ignition first, check your feeds, then hit the accelerator. Just pull straight forward."

"Right." Diana's brow narrowed with concentration, an expression so like Shepard's that Ashley wasn't certain whether to be proud or terrified. "Okay. I'll hit the ignition." She pressed the glowing blue circle beside the wheel. The Skycar came to life, rising slowly into the air.

"Good so far. Now…"

"Accelerate. Got it!"

Instead of hovering, the skycar lurched forward. For a few seconds, the world blurred, and Ashley slammed back into her seat. Stabilizers could only do so much. "Diana, wait-"

The skycar slammed to a stop. Only the harness across her chest prevented Ashley from flying headfirst through the window. Her teeth snapped together in her skull, and the breath flew out of her lungs - partially from terror. Her stomach kept moving long after the vehicle stilled, and she had to swallow to suppress some of her nausea.  _Great. It's Shepard all over again. No wonder Liara wanted me to handle this. The truck incident and the Mako probably gave her some serious PTSD._

"Sorry, Aunt Ash." Ashley looked over to see Diana staring at her with a worried, embarrassed expression. "Guess I jumped the gun, huh?"

"A little," Ashley said. She took in a deep breath. The more nervous she acted, the more nervous Diana would feel. She needed to keep calm if she wanted to get through this alive. "It's okay. This is why we're flying in your back yard. The only things you've gotta avoid are the trees."

Shit, she thought as she looked out the window. Thanks to Diana's first attempt, the forest surrounding the T'Soni estate was several hundred yards closer than it had been before.  _And there are a_  lot  _of trees. Maybe I should have taken her to a desert or something. Yeah, a nice abandoned desert with nothing else around for miles…_  Memories of Shepard driving them straight into a Thresher Maw nest came back to her.  _Okay. Bad idea. Trees it is._

"Let's try again. Head over for that clear patch of field over there, the one without too many trees."

"Okay."

This time, the skycar shuddered forward at a crawl. Diana was barely pushing the accelerator, and Ashley breathed a sigh of relief.  _At least she's showing improvement. More than I can say for her Dad._  She brought her hand up to her face, brushing away a few strands of hair that had escaped her bun. "Good, Diana. You're doing great. Let's speed it up a little."

Diana didn't respond. She stared at the empty expanse of field, her face tense with concentration. Her target seemed to be a small tree in the distance - the only tree in that stretch of the yard.

"You can go faster. Just don't try to set a land speed record like last time."

The shuttle continued creeping forward. The tree grew larger.

"Why don't you try to turn?"

Diana remained silent. She remained focused, tongue poking out between her lips, inching along at the same pace. The tree didn't move.

"Kid, you need to turn. Fast. We don't want to hit the-"

Suddenly, the tree stopped moving. So did the shuttle. Both jolted, and Ashley flinched along with them. She raised her imploring eyes to the heavens - or, more accurately, the ceiling of the skycar - and sighed.  _Fuck, Shepard. Your daughter just managed to hit the only tree in this part of the field. What the hell was Liara thinking when she made this kid from your DNA?_

"Shit." Ashley broke from her thoughts and looked over at Diana. She was staring out the window in disbelief, and the expression on her face could only be described as 'terrified'. "Oh, shit. Shit, shit, shit. My Mom's gonna kill me!"

She reached out, clasping Diana's shaking shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Don't beat yourself up. Liara's not gonna kill you. I'm sure the car's fine." Secretly, Ashley had her doubts, but she didn't want to make Diana feel any worse. "Let's switch to reverse and pull back to get a look at the damage. Do you remember how to go backwards?"

"Uh... I think so?"

The fact that it was a question instead of an answer made Ashley's stomach clench, but she forced a smile. "Move the slider next to the accelerator down. Then, slowly hit the accelerator. Slowly, got it?"

Diana nodded. "O-okay." She let out a long breath. "I can do this. Right?"

Ashley gave her shoulder another pat before letting go. "Right." Diana did as instructed. The car drifted backwards, groaning as it scraped away from the splintered trunk of the tree. "Good. Hit the accelerator a little..."

She jerked hard into her harness as the skycar went zooming backwards. "DIANA!"

"Sorry!" Diana took her hand away from the accelerator, and the car swung to stop.

Ashley slumped forward in her seat, staring down into her lap and bracing her elbows on her knees. Her chest was going to have strap-shaped bruises for at least a couple of days. She might even need some medigel. "Don't be sorry. It wasn't as bad as last time." She gave Diana a smile and got a weak, sheepish grin in return. "Let's take a break and stretch our legs. I'll check out the front of the car. Then we'll get back to it."

"Are you sure, Aunt Ash? We can stop if you want..."

Ashley shook her head. If they stopped now, Diana wouldn't have the chance to regain her confidence.  _Just like riding a bike. If you don't get right back on after you scrape your knee, you never will._  "Nope. I know you can do this. Once I make sure the skycar's safe to fly, we'll try again until you get it right. I won't even tell your Mom you crashed into that tree. Deal?"

Diana gave her a wide grin, confidence restored. "Deal."


	3. Tevos hires a new assistant (E)

Calista craned her neck, gazing around the waiting room with bright, eager eyes. The lone desk and terminal before her weren't anything fancy, but she couldn't help quivering with excitement. She hadn't expected to be called back for a follow-up interview at all, much less her third in the space of a week. But here she was, preparing to meet the Asari Councilor herself.

She could scarcely believe her good luck. Not only would winning the job do wonders for her career, but Thea Tevos had always been one of her idols. She hadn't even been a century old, but she still remembered the Councilor's famous speech on the steps of Armali's temple. She had been struggling with her own sexuality at the time, and seeing such a powerful figure publicly acknowledge her asari bondmate had come as an immense relief.

Her interest in the woman had led to a sincere interest in politics, and she had devoured every scrap of information she could get her hands on. Several decades later, she was on the verge of becoming the Councilor's personal assistant. Just one more hurdle to clear, and she would have a comfortable, well paying job working for someone she admired. And it did pay very well. Almost too well. She hadn't quite believed the sum Neota, the Councilor's current assistant, had mentioned during her second interview. Still, she wasn't one to complain about a good thing. She could use the extra credits.

A soft sound, almost like a sigh, startled her from her thoughts. She looked around, trying to see the source of the noise, but the elevator door to her right was still shut, and the hall to her left was abandoned. "I must have imagined it," she said aloud to the empty room. She settled back in her chair, re-folding her legs and trying to get comfortable as she waited. Neota hadn't arrived yet, but that was probably her fault for coming in fifteen minutes early.

Just when she had convinced herself that she hadn't heard anything at all, the noise came again. It was louder this time, a low, broken sort of groan. Someone was in the office after all, and it sounded like they were in distress. Calista left her chair and approached the hallway, unsure what she was going to do. Neota had never taken her back to the Councilor's office before, but that was clearly where the noise was coming from. She didn't want to enter the hallway without permission...

The moans became louder, more urgent. This time, Calista didn't wait. Whoever was back there might need help. Perhaps it was even the Councilor herself. She couldn't simply ignore it because she was worried about peeking somewhere she shouldn't. She made her way down the hall, bypassing a few other doors until she came to the one at the end. The nameplate on the door: 'CLLR T. TEVOS', made her hesitate for a moment, but another sharp cry steeled her nerves. A glowing green pressure pad was set into the wall, and she pressed her palm against it.

What she saw when the door hissed open made Calista freeze in shock. All the blood in her body split, rising to heat her flushed face and rushing down to throb directly between her legs. The Councilor was indeed in her office, but she was the exact opposite of distressed. She was bent forward, dress hitched up past her waist and arching in ecstasy. Her nails clawed at the edge of her desk, and every inch of her body seemed to tremble. Even from a distance, it was obvious that her eyes were shining with the deep, endless black light of the meld.

A powerful form moved behind her, and Calista gasped as she recognized the unique purple skin and famous leather jacket. Even though they had never met before, Aria T'Loak was unmistakable. Her hands gripped Tevos's hips, dragging her back and forth, slamming their bodies together with quick, harsh thrusts.

Neither of them seemed to realize they had been interrupted. As she watched in astonishment, too stunned to speak and reveal her presence, Aria bent low over the Councilor's back. She tugged down the collar of Tevos's dress, exposing the graceful column of her throat. It was already littered with bruises, but she set about adding another to the violet chain, sinking her teeth in and growling as her movements picked up speed.

Only then did Calista notice the thick, glistening shaft that joined them together. The length was a shade darker than Aria's flesh, and covered in a gleaming coat of wetness. It sank forward again and again, burying deep inside of Tevos with every pump of Aria's hips. Each thrust earned another sob of desire from the Councilor, and her black eyes seemed to shine even brighter.

Calista's jaw hung open. She clutched the side of the door, terrified her knees would give. Her lungs burned, but she had forgotten how to breathe. Outside a few furtive viewings of the classic Amara Anjali vids, she had never witnessed anything like this before. It was primal, possessive, and increasingly desperate.

"Fuck, Thea," Aria growled against Tevos's flesh, refusing to give up her shoulder. "I can feel how bad you want it. You're so full, so fucking tight around me..."

Councilor Tevos appeared to be somewhere beyond words. She simply surrendered to the rhythm, still clawing at the desk. For a moment, it seemed as though she was about to speak, but her mouth opened in a silent scream. Her head craned back over her shoulder, and Aria's lips crashed against hers, claiming them in a hard, uneven kiss. Both of them seized and shivered, clinging tight to each other as they finally released.

"Oh Goddess."

Calista didn't realize she had spoken until it was too late. She froze in horror, torn between intense embarrassment and uncomfortable arousal, but to her immense surprise, Tevos did not try to hide what she was doing. She simply ended her kiss with Aria and smiled, savoring a few more shudders before resting her forehead on the desk. "You're back from lunch early, Neota," she said without opening her eyes. "Did you remember to bring me something? Oh, why am I even asking. Of course you did."

"Um, babe?" Calista stopped looking at Tevos long enough to realize that Aria had finally noticed her presence. The Queen of Omega stared at her with clear eyes, her tattooed lips curled in a proud smirk. "You might want to check again. It's not Neota."

"What?" Tevos lifted her head off the desk, an embarrassed flush spreading across her cheeks. Calista was equally embarrassed, and she hurried to cover her eyes with her hand.

"I... Madame Councilor, I am so sorry," she stammered, not even sure what she was saying. "I heard crying, and I... I was just trying to... Oh Goddess, I didn't think..."

"Calista!" The sound of her name startled her. She peeked out from between her fingers to see Neota standing beside her, holding a pair of takeout boxes in each hand. The Councilor's assistant looked startled, but not by the sight of the two lovers draped on top of the desk. "What are you doing here?"

"What kind of stupid question is that, Neota?" Calista turned to look at Aria, who was still positioned behind the flustered Councilor. She drew her hips back, revealing even more of the slick shaft between her legs. Calista tried not to stare, but she couldn't help it. The thick purple length and even the front of Aria's leather pants were covered in evidence of their pleasure. "She came for the show, just like you." Her eyes narrowed, and the predatory glint in them made Calista shudder all over again. "Mmm. And she's cute, too. You did a good job picking this one out."

Tevos stood and pulled down her dress, giving Aria an exasperated look. "At least close your pants," she said, moving to fix Aria's clothes once her own were back in their proper place. When her bondmate didn't move fast enough for her liking, she did the job herself, tucking the cock back into Aria's pants and doing up the zipper without even looking. "I won't get a new assistant at all if you keep scaring them off like this."

"I don't scare them off," Aria said. She bristled a little, but allowed Tevos to make her presentable. "You and Neota are just picky."

"I'm not going to bother arguing with you," Tevos huffed. She stepped around the desk, only flinching a little as Aria snuck in one last grope of her ass before she moved out of reach.

Calista wanted to melt into the floor as the Councilor's gaze fixed on her. She had no idea what to say or what to do. She trembled, but her words had abandoned her once again.

"I'm so sorry about this... Calista, isn't it?" She nodded, still unable to speak. She couldn't believe how professional and poised Councilor Tevos appeared, particularly since she had been writhing against the desk only a minute earlier. If she hadn't witnessed it herself, she never would have guessed. "Neota and I weren't expecting you this early. I apologize."

"No, it was my fault," she blurted out, blushing even more furiously. "I shouldn't have come back here. I just heard the noises, and..." She chewed on her lower lip, trying not to remember exactly what those noises had sounded like. The memory was enough to send another pulse between her legs. “I thought someone might need help.”

The Councilor offered her a reassuring smile. "It's all right. You had no idea what we were doing. Now, I believe you have a decision to make. If you give me a few minutes to clean up, Neota and I would be more than happy to share our lunch with you and continue your interview. It's mostly a formality at this point. I just wanted a chance to meet you before offering you the position. But if you would feel more comfortable leaving, I understand completely. I would never dream of holding it against you."

"No!" The volume of her own voice surprised her, and she cleared her throat for another try. "I mean, no. I - I would be honored to sit in for a final interview. I'll just... the hall... I'll, um, I'll go wait outside while you..." She backed past Neota and out of the room with a respectful dip of her head.

Just before she left, Calista heard Aria make one final comment. "See? I said you'd know when the right one came along. If she could handle that, she'll do just fine. Besides, I like her tits."

"Aria! I'm hiring her because of her qualifications, not so you can leer at her. If you can’t behave appropriately toward her, you won’t be bending me over my desk again any time soon."

The doors hissed shut, leaving her alone with Neota in the hallway. The Councilor's assistant smiled at her, and she gave a hesitant smile back. "I don't mean to pry, but was that a normal occurrence?" she asked, praying she didn't seem too hopeful.

Neota laughed and nodded her head. "I'm afraid so. The Councilor does her best to be discreet, but she and Aria can't keep their hands off each other. I walk in on them at least once a month. They've mostly grown used to my interruptions, but I'm sure they'll try and be more considerate when you start."

Calista's heart leapt at the word 'when'. From the way Councilor Tevos and Neota had been talking, it sounded as though she already had the job. "I hope I didn't make a poor first impression," she murmured.

"Not at all,” Neota said, offering her some reassurance. “You handled yourself well under the circumstances. The first time I caught them melding, I nearly died of shock. And maybe a bit of jealousy, if I’m being honest.”

“It’s understandable. The shock, I mean,” she added a split second too late. She couldn’t decide who she was jealous of herself, the Councilor or the Queen of Omega. Both of them were so attractive that they were almost painful to look at. They photographed well, but she had thought most of that was the editing. Apparently, they didn’t need matte filters or touch-ups to look gorgeous.

“Of course.” Neota started down the hall, and Calista followed. “So, do you have any other questions about the position while we wait? It’s fairly exhausting, but Councilor Tevos is a wonderful woman to work for.”

Calista’s cheeks burned as she thought back to the way Tevos had looked rocking against Aria and clutching at her desk. “No,” she said when she realized that Neota was still waiting for an answer. “No more questions. Your explanations have been very thorough. If the Councilor is still interested in taking me on after lunch, I would love to be her new assistant.”

And secretly, even though she would never admit it, a guilty part of her couldn’t help hoping that Tevos and Aria wouldn’t be as discreet as Neota claimed.

 


	4. Tevos is afraid of being a new mother (PG)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, 2dShepard drew an adorable drawing of an exasperated Aria, a scared-looking Tevos, and a baby asari over on tumblr in response to a funny comment by Sigmalied: "lmao that brought to mind a scenario in which Aria would take a baby from Tevos and be like "the fuck is wrong with u that is not how you hold a kid were u raised by animals" "no, by rich people"
> 
> YOU CAN SEE THE DRAWING HERE: http://raedmagdon.tumblr.com/post/127881476957/
> 
> The comment and drawing weren't specific to my TBE universe at all (Sigmalied writes their own great Aria/Tevos stuff) but it fit well with the canon of my series. n_n So I wrote a thing.

Tevos frowned as she adjusted the squirming, sniffling bundle in her arms. For some reason, her daughter's squishy shape just wouldn't sit right against her. It had been a few weeks since Lycoris's birth, but so far, motherhood was still awkward for her.  _Awkward and messy,_  she thought, shuddering at a few choice memories. She had many talents, but caring for a newborn baby wasn't turning out to be one of them.

Lycoris continued to cry, moving more than an infant should have been capable of and flopping against one of her elbows. Tevos gazed down at her, a nervous line creasing her brow. So far, the only maternal instinct she had latched onto was worry—worry she would do something wrong, or worse, unintentionally harm her own child.  _It doesn't help that she's so small. Her crest hasn't even hardened yet. How am I supposed to care for something so fragile?_  Somehow, being responsible for this tiny living being was far more terrifying than her responsibilities as the Asari Councilor.

Her chest began to ache with panic.  _I can't do this,_ she thought, wincing as a piercing wail from Lycoris fueled her fog of fear. The thrashing got worse, and so did her stream of negative thoughts.  _What made me think I could be a parent? Maybe mother was right. I shouldn't have had a daughter. I have no idea what I'm doing…_

Before the awful spiral could continue, the door to the apartment opened. Lycoris continued to bawl and wriggle, and Tevos nearly cried herself in relief.  _Aria! Oh, thank the Goddess you're home._  Never had she been so happy to see her bondmate's beautiful scowling face. "Here, take her," she said, trying to shove Lycoris into Aria's arms. "She won't stop crying."

Her heart sank when Aria didn't immediately take the baby. "Did you feed her?"

Tevos nodded. Reluctantly, she cradled Lycoris back against her chest, struggling to reposition her daughter's wiggling body. Practically the only time Lycoris actually liked being in her arms was when she was being fed, and breastfeeding was a special torture all its own. Aside from the war, she couldn't remember the last time she had been so tired and sore. Even with Aria bottle-feeding for some of the night shifts, she never got to sleep more than a few short hours at a time.

"What about changing her?"

Tevos nodded again. "I just did. That's why I was holding her. But she still won't…" She flinched as Lycoris's choked sobs grew louder. "Oh Goddess. What am I doing wrong? Why did I ever think I could do this?"

"Here." Aria cut her off, helping to adjust Lycoris in her arms. "You can start by holding her right. Prop her up like this and get your elbow under her. Then her chin can go over your shoulder."

Silently, Tevos allowed Aria to reposition both of them. She suddenly felt more comfortable, and Lycoris's crying trailed off into unhappy hiccups. Soon, the noise stopped altogether. Tevos exhaled slowly, coming back to herself. With Aria's guidance, she cupped her hand over Lycoris's back, settling her more securely in place. "You'd think the Asari Councilor wouldn't be clueless about how to hold a baby," she sighed, her worry giving way to embarrassment.

"You'd think." Aria shook her head in what could have been frustration or amusement. "Where the fuck did you learn how to hold a kid anyway? Were you raised by wild varren or something?"

"No, worse. Rich people."

This time, Aria's smile gave her away. She was definitely amused. "Feeling better, huh, babe? Your sarcasm's back."

"Obviously it's because my mother didn't hold me enough as a child. I'm trying to spare our daughter the same fate." Tevos lowered her eyes to the top of Lycoris's crest, allowing herself to smile a little. The pattern of the mottling there was already familiar, just like her father's. "You'd never know she was such a needy terror by looking at her," she said in a whisper of affectionate disbelief. "She seems so cute and harmless."

"The same could be said about her mother," Aria pointed out. "Here, let me take her."

Tevos rolled her eyes. "Really, Aria? You want her after she's stopped shrieking?" But she allowed Aria to take the drowsy bundle. Lycoris molded naturally with Aria's chest, and Tevos had to admit that it was a sweet picture. Her bondmate didn't have many soft spots, but Lycoris had clearly become one of them already.

"You aren't a bad mother, Thea," Aria said after a while, swaying subtly back and forth. "You give a shit. Not every brat is lucky enough to get that from their parents."

Crudely worded though it was, Tevos could tell the statement was meant to be a compliment. "You aren't a bad father, either," she said, standing close to Aria's side so she could stroke Lycoris's crest. Her bleary eyes were already drooping, and Tevos suspected she would start dozing off in another minute. Aria's touch never failed to put Lycoris to sleep.

"That's debatable," Aria said, but as her denials went, it wasn't a harsh one. It was almost tacit agreement.

"I suppose it makes you feel a bit more confident in your parenting skills to see me struggle with something simple."

"Only a little," Aria admitted. "You might be clueless about how to hold her, but I already know I'm shit at this on my own. She's going to need you."

Tevos tore her eyes away from Lycoris's chubby face and gazed into Aria's eyes. "You mean you're going to need me."

"Fine," Aria grumbled. "We're both going to need you. Now go take a nap or something. You should try and sleep while she does."

The offer was too tempting to resist. Tevos stepped back, covering a yawn with her hand. "Where did you go this afternoon anyway?" she asked. "You've barely left my side since we came home."

The corners of Aria's lips twitched up in a familiar predatory smirk. "Inspecting the new crop of strippers my entertainment manager hired for Afterlife."

Tevos snorted. "No, really?"

"I was thwarting a coup before it got off the ground. A few idiot mercs thought I'd gone soft since the Princess of Omega made her grand entrance. I had to crack a few heads together and prove them wrong."

Tevos was certain that Aria had done more than crack a few heads together, but she accepted the edited version of the truth. She knew there were those who wanted to harm their family simply because of who they were, but she didn't like to think about it. She still had occasional nightmares about General Oleg Petrovsky and his mad quest for revenge. It was why she tolerated Grizz as her constant shadow on Omega Station and accepted Aria's unnecessary hovering.

Instinctively, her eyes searched for Aria again. She felt better almost immediately as she observed the protective way her bondmate cradled their sleeping daughter.  _She can handle it,_ she told herself. _She always does. And I can handle Corrie as long as she's with me._

Satisfied that snatching a few minutes of sleep wouldn't cause any harm, she leaned in for two quick kisses, one to Lycoris's soft cheek and one to Aria's lips. When she pulled away, Aria was smiling again, and for once, there wasn't a trace of smugness in it. "Go sleep, babe. I'll put her down next to you in a minute."

Tevos understood what Aria wasn't saying. She wanted a moment with Lycoris to decompress. Instead of exhausting her, the baby seemed to fill Aria with contentment and a sense of purpose. "Don't be long," she said, giving them both one last fond look. Aria nodded, then continued her swaying. Tevos felt a little of her heart melt. She slipped off to the bedroom on quiet feet, already looking forward to the moment when Aria and Lycoris would join her.


	5. Athena and Lycoris's parents are called in when they go missing from class (PG-13 for language)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place in the year 2217, when Lycoris and Athena are school-aged. :D Enjoy!

Narisa N'Sil wasn't certain what she had done to deserve this. Perhaps the Goddess was punishing her for the stunts she had pulled during her own centuries as a student, or maybe her bondmate was right about the 'karma' business humans believed in. Either way, she had to be one of the unluckiest people on the Citadel, perhaps even the galaxy.  _Of all the children to go missing in the middle of the day, why did it have to be them? And of all the people who could explain the situation to their parents, why does it have to be me?_

The answer to that last question was depressingly simple. Her boss, the “Director of Curriculum and Resources”, was a coward. Erista usually loved sucking up to the "important" parents, but today, she was holed up in her office. For once, Narisa couldn't blame her. She had been chosen to deliver the bad news instead, and she doubted she would escape the conversation alive. Three of her students' parents could kill her in the time it took to snap their fingers, and the other could banish her from Council Space for the rest of her natural life.

She started pacing in front of her desk, practicing the polite reassurances her boss had ordered her to give. "Everything is being taken care of... We have several staff members searching... C-Sec has been alerted..." With each empty phrase, her chest constricted. She wished she was out with the others, looking for the missing girls instead of sitting uselessly in this empty room and awaiting her fate.

Before she could work herself into a panic, the door flew open. A tall figure burst in without knocking, crossing the room in long, swift strides. Even though the infamous Aria T'Loak hadn't shown up for any parent-teacher conferences since Lycoris had been placed in her lesson group, Narisa knew who she was immediately. The white jacket and the murderous look on her face were obvious clues. She stopped less than a foot away, eyes narrowed, faint purple light swimming around her clenched fists. "You. You're Lycoris's teacher?"

Narisa tried to respond, but her voice wouldn't work. Her lips mouthed useless words and she could only give a small nod.

"Then do you want to explain how you fucking _lost_  my kid?"

 _I'm going to die,_  Narisa thought, trembling as Aria loomed over her.  _She's going to warp me inside out, and no one will hear me scream, and they're going to find my mangled body somewhere far, far away..._

"Aria!"

Her horrible death was delayed a few more precious seconds as someone else entered through the open door. Narisa felt an intense surge of relief when she saw Councilor Tevos standing in the doorway. They had met several times before, and Narisa hoped the Councilor's mediation skills would forestall any violence—particularly against her.

"I told you not to run," Tevos said, heels clicking across the floor. "I don't have the footwear for it."

Aria whipped around to face Tevos, and Narisa took the opportunity to scramble several steps back for her own safety. "Damn it, Thea, how can you be so  _calm?_  Our daughter is missing! She could be lost, or hurt, or—"

"Or skipping class," Tevos suggested. "She's thirty. Do you know how many times I did that when I was her age?"

To Narisa's surprise, Aria's anger faded a little. "You? Playing hooky? Yeah, right."

"Well, I usually faked sick when I didn't want to go to school, but some of my classmates were less subtle." Narisa gulped as the Councilor turned toward her. "When was the last time someone saw Lycoris? Could she have left the embassy?"

Narisa took a deep breath. "We... um, we aren't exactly sure. As far as we know, no students have left the premises, but we just can't find them."

"Wait, them?" Aria asked. "There's more than one student missing?"

"Yes," Tevos said, more than a little exasperated. "Our goddaughter is missing too, which I could have told you if you'd  _listened_  to me before running out of the apartment like... what's that expression Shepard uses? 'A bat out of Hell.'"

Aria's clenched fists finally relaxed. "Okay. Your theory about Lycoris playing hooky is starting to sound more credible. Athena probably talked her into it. She's a magnet for trouble, just like her father."

"Excuse me?"

Narisa turned to see two more people in the doorway. Commander Shepard stood ramrod straight, arms folded over her broad chest, lips pressed into a thin white line. Even in casual clothes, her posture gave her away as a soldier, and Narisa couldn't help but notice the pistol hanging on her hip. The young asari beside her was similarly unhappy. Doctor T'Soni didn't have quite the same intimidating physical presence, but her expression was intensely cold.

Luckily, most of Liara's anger was focused on Aria. "Would you like to explain why you drove off before we could get in the skycar with you?" she asked, voice crackling with ice.

Narisa's brow furrowed in confusion.  _Wait, drove off? Were they together before this?_

"I'm sorry, Liara," Tevos said. "I tried to slow her down, but I barely managed to get in myself. She took off as soon as she read the first message."

Aria ignored her. "I'm not in the mood for your attitude, T'Soni," she growled. "Besides, it's not like you were stranded. You had your own damn car."

"So you left me with Shepard?  _Shepard?_  Her driving is bad enough when our daughter isn't missing!"

"This  _really_  isn't the time to insult my driving, Liara," Shepard said. "And Aria, what the fuck? You couldn't have waited five seconds for the rest of us to figure out what was going on?"

Narisa stared as the three of them continued to argue. One moment, they looked like they wanted to kill each other. The next, the fight almost seemed more like a lover's spat. While she watched with growing alarm, Tevos caught her eye. "This is exactly why I didn't let them help with the bake sale last month," she said with a long-suffering sigh. Then, she turned her attention on the others. "Aria, there's no need to use your biotics in a classroom."

The purple-white glow around Aria's fists flickered out, and she took a step back from Liara. "She started it," she mumbled, not unlike some of Narisa's more petulant students.

"I did not," Liara protested. "She—"

"I don't want to hear it," Tevos said in her most professional 'Councilor' voice. "The important thing right now is to find our children."

 _"Thank you,"_  Shepard said. "That's what I was trying to tell them."

The tattoos on Tevos's forehead lifted, and her expression could only be described as skeptical. "Is that why your hand is on your gun?"

Shepard slouched and removed her hand from the grip of her pistol.

"Better. So, Matron N'Shir, when exactly did Lycoris and Athena go missing?"

Narisa sighed. "An hour ago. They didn't come back in for lessons after their lunch break. There were monitors supervising the students, of course, but no one realized they were gone until I returned to the classroom and noticed two empty seats."

"An hour?" Aria repeated. Her jaw clenched and the line of her shoulders stiffened. "You mean my kid has been missing for a whole hour and no one thought to tell me until now?"

Thankfully, Tevos stepped in. "Don't be unreasonable, Aria. It seems like common sense for the school to conduct their own search before calling us."

"Not only that," Liara said, "but if you'd waited a moment longer, I could have told you that I installed a location tracker on Athena's Omnitool."

Aria rolled her eyes. "What, do you think I'm stupid? Or my kid is? Lycoris has one too, but if she and Athena are playing hooky like Tevos thinks, I'm sure they ditched them the first chance they got."

Liara bit her lip, looking almost guilty. "I also might have bribed Athena's optician to install a second tracker when she had corrective surgery a few years ago."

"You what?" Shepard blurted out. "In her eye? Well, that isn't creepy  _at all_ for my wife to do behind my back. When we get home, the two of us are having a serious talk."

"You two can argue as much as you want after we find them," Aria snapped. "Liara?"

Liara didn't answer. She was already keying commands into her Omnitool. "I'm getting two clear signals. This way." She stepped back out into the hallway with the others following close behind.

Narisa hesitated for a few moments before hurrying to catch up. She was slightly relieved that the four of them had been too busy arguing with each other to turn their anger on her, but she wouldn't feel better until Lycoris and Athena were found. Aria still looked more like a predator than a person as she stalked through the halls, and Shepard and Liara were only slightly less terrifying.

As they approached the lunch room, Liara came to an abrupt halt. "The first signal stops here," she said, pausing to eye a small ventilation shaft built into the wall.

"They couldn't fit up there, could they?" Shepard asked doubtfully. "It's way too small."

"Not for their Omnitools." Aria removed the grate from the wall, hardly having to use any force. "Someone's already loosened this. Here, look." She reached inside, pulling out two small, deactivated Omnitool wristbands.

"What about the second signal?" Tevos asked.

Liara bent back over her Omnitool. "It's not far. Just a few yards to the left and... up?" She gazed up at the ceiling, then turned to Narisa. "Are there any classrooms above us?"

Narisa shook her head. "No. All the embassy classrooms are on the second and third floors. The lobby and reception desks are down below, and the floors above are office space."

A thoughtful look appeared on Shepard's face. She crossed over to the other side of the hallway, peering out through a large glass window into the courtyard below. "I think I know how our little miscreants escaped," she said, smiling slightly. "There's a fire escape right outside this window. How many credits you want to bet we'll find them finishing their lunch on the roof?"

"Move." Aria shoved past Shepard and shouldered the window open with a grunt. She was over the sill in seconds, scaling the side of the building.

Tevos sighed as she stared down at her feet. "In hindsight, perhaps I should have chosen more sensible shoes..."

"We'll go after her," Shepard offered. "Liara?"

"I thought my ladder climbing days were over after the incident at the Citadel Archives," Liara muttered, clambering over the windowsill.

"At least no one's shooting at us this time, right?" Shepard said as she too disappeared out the window. "We'll be back in a moment, you two. Just hang tight."

Once they were gone, Narisa turned toward Tevos. "Er, Madam Councilor... there's an elevator at the end of the hall if you'd like to join them on the roof? I have the security code."

Tevos gave her a small smile. "I assumed as much, but there's no stopping my bondmate when she gets an idea in her head... or Shepard, for that matter. If they want to scale the side of a building instead of being sensible, I'm inclined to let them. Liara will make sure they don't get in too much trouble. She's usually level-headed when Aria isn't trying to annoy her."

Once again, Narisa got the distinct impression that the argument she had witnessed in her classroom wasn't an uncommon occurrence. She led Tevos to the elevator, entering the staff code and waiting for the light to flash green. "Students don't usually have access to the elevators during the school day," she explained. "That's one reason we have fire escapes. Now that it's been pointed out, I'm surprised this hasn't happened before. We’ve had them in place since the war."

"For all you know, it might have," Tevos said as they stepped into the elevator. "Children can be very good at keeping secrets from adults. It's just a hunch, but I suspect this isn't the first time Corrie and Athena have slipped away for a lunch date on the roof."

The lift came to a stop, and Narisa heaved a sigh of relief as soon as the doors opened. There was no sign of the others, but Lycoris and Athena were just where Shepard had said they would be. Both of them were fast asleep, curled up on top of their jackets with a few plates of stolen food between them. Lycoris's cheek was smushed against her bookbag and Athena's head was resting in her lap.

"Thank the Goddess," she breathed. Even if her boss ended up firing her for this later, at least the girls were all right and Aria probably wouldn't kill her.

Tevos crossed the roof and knelt beside the sleeping children, reaching out to stroke the side of Lycoris's face. "Corrie? Athena? Time to wake up."

Athena whimpered and tried to shield her eyes, but Lycoris gave a few groggy blinks. "Mom?" she croaked, squinting against the sunlight. "What are you doing here?"

"What a coincidence. I was just about to ask you and Athena the same question."

Lycoris suddenly seemed to realize the seriousness of the situation. Her eyes snapped open the rest of the way and she groaned in dismay. "Fuck."

Privately, Narisa had to agree. 'Fuck' pretty much described how her day was going, too.

"Language, Corrie," Tevos admonished while Athena began to stir. Athena smiled up at Lycoris with a dreamy expression before remembering where they were. She lifted her head and stretched, gathering up her jacket.

"It's not Corrie's fault, Aunt Tevos. I was the one who brought us up here..."

"I knew it." All of them turned to see Aria clamber over the side of the roof. She wasn't even winded from her several-story climb, and her expression definitely wasn't happy. "Lycoris, you should damn well know better. Do you realize how many people in this galaxy hate me—and by extension, you? I thought you'd been abducted or worse. What in the universe made you think hiding up here was a good idea?"

"We weren't hiding, Dad," Lycoris mumbled, avoiding Aria's eyes. "We just wanted to have lunch alone..."

Tevos straightened and made her way over to Aria, taking hold of her tense arm. "They fell asleep, dear heart. It was an accident."

"Yeah, well, fucking accidents get people killed," Aria growled. "Just ask the walking accident over there." She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder as Shepard hopped over the wall behind her.

The Commander didn't bother to stop and argue over Aria's unflattering description. Instead, she rushed over to Athena and hugged her. "Thank God you're safe," she whispered, kissing the top of her daughter's crest. "Your mother and I were so worried—"

"And you're also grounded for a month," Liara said. She hurried over to join them nevertheless, sharing the same embrace. "That means limited extranet, no extraneous social events, and no unsupervised time with Lycoris."

That was enough to make Athena wriggle away. "What? But that isn't fair! It's not Lycoris's fault."

"You won't get to see her anyway," Aria said. "Lycoris is grounded for even longer than you are."

Lycoris began protesting immediately. "What? No! I'm fine, see?" She waved her outstretched arms as if trying to prove a point.

"Yeah, this time." Aria paused, and the muscles around her eyes tightened with what looked like grief. "But I'm not losing another daughter over stupid fucking decisions."

An awful sinking feeling started in Narisa's stomach. She and her bondmate had a small daughter of their own, and she recognized the emotions on Aria's face. It was the endless sadness and primal terror all parents experienced at the very thought of their child being harmed. She suddenly felt as though she had intruded on a private moment.

"Dad..." Lycoris slumped over, looking both guilty and defeated.

Aria didn't say anything else. She stepped forward and pulled Lycoris into a fierce hug, refusing to let go.

The sound of sirens floating up to the rooftop finally ended the moment. "C-Sec?" Aria asked Shepard from over Lycoris's shoulder, still holding her tight.

Shepard sighed. She let go of Athena, leaving her in Liara's arms. "I'll go deal with them. You want to take care of the principal?"

"I think Liara and I should handle that," Tevos suggested. "Why don't you take the girls home, Aria?"

To Narisa's surprise, Aria didn't protest. She kept her arm around Lycoris's shoulder and started shepherding her toward the elevator, while Athena trudged along behind after a sad glance at her parents. Narisa hurried to scramble out of their way. Although Aria had softened since finding Lycoris safe and sound, she still looked about ready to blast some unfortunate person over the edge of the building.

The elevator ride back down to the second floor was long, tense, and incredibly awkward. Lycoris and Athena moped in silence while Aria glowered and Shepard fiddled with her Omnitool. Tevos and Liara exchanged knowing glances, seeming to communicate in perfect silence. Narisa scrunched as far as she could into the corner, unwilling to disturb any of them.

Finally, the lift came to a stop. “Don’t let my bondmate get into any arguments with C-Sec, Shepard,” Tevos ordered, giving Aria a warning look. “I’ll see all of you at home.”

Athena’s face brightened with hope. “Wait, Aunt Tevos, are we all going to your apartment?”

“Only so we can have a long talk,” Tevos said. “And I guarantee it won’t be one you’ll enjoy.” She started to leave the elevator, but stopped, stiffened, and shuddered for a brief moment as Aria grabbed a firm handful of her ass. Narisa almost thought she had imagined it until Lycoris made a disgusted noise and Athena began giggling.

“Don’t take too long, babe, or I might be tempted to come back and deal with this myself.”

Tevos sighed and shook her head. “Please, don’t.” A light smack sent her the rest of the way out of the lift, and Narisa scrambled after her, blushing furiously.

Liara seemed to notice her embarrassment. “Don’t mind her,” she murmured as the doors closed. “Aria enjoys making people uncomfortable.”

Narisa gave her a small nod, then hurried to change the subject. “I’m sorry my boss wasn’t here to meet with you as soon as you arrived, Doctor T’Soni, Madam Councilor,” she said, giving them an apologetic look. “She, um...delegated the responsibility to me.”

“What a diplomatic way of putting it,” Tevos drawled. “Perhaps we should go inform her that the situation is resolved?”

Narisa swallowed nervously. Tevos and Liara had every right to express their concerns after what had happened, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to witness another confrontation, even if Aria wasn’t going to be involved.  _Then again, I can’t deny an upset parent’s request… especially when they’re the Asari Councilor._  She tried not to smile as she imagined the horrified look on Erista’s smug face. It would require an effort of will not to enjoy watching the fireworks.


	6. Lycoris faces Shepard in Armax Arena (PG-13 for sexual thoughts)

_It's not fair._ _Armor isn't supposed to be that sexy, is it?_ Lycoris busied herself by checking the heat sink on her pistol, trying her best not to steal glances from the corner of her eye. Athena was standing close to her—uncomfortably close. The sleek black commando leathers she wore clung to every curve, and the eye-catching red and white stripes down the sides didn't help. She shook herself, focusing on her weapon. Staring at Athena was starting to make her own armor feel constricting.

Unfortunately, she didn't look away fast enough. "Bad choice, kid," Aria muttered, nearly making her jump out of her skin. "You shouldn't have picked your girlfriend for our team."

At first, Lycoris was embarrassed. Apparently, her distraction was so obvious that even her father could pick up on it. But when she noticed Athena giggling in amusement, she got annoyed instead. "Who else was I supposed to pick, Dad?" she hissed under her breath. "Benezia? She's basically dead weight." That wasn't true, but she was irritated enough to say it anyway. Benezia didn’t have the same interest in combat that her sisters did, but she was still a formidable biotic for her age.

"You should have picked Diana," Aria interrupted. "We could have had it easy, warping from behind cover."

Lycoris knew her father was right. Having a vanguard on their team would have been an asset, especially against Commander Shepard. But when she'd been asked to choose one of the T'Soni girls, she hadn't been able to resist picking Athena. She knew it was stupid, but unless they were sparring one on one, she didn't like being forced to fight her girlfriend.

"It was strategic," she said, trying to justify her decision. "I knew I'd hesitate if it came down to her and me."

Aria sighed and shook her head, still unconvinced. She stared at the gates, waiting patiently for them to open. "If we lose to Shepard, I'm blaming you," she said, a slight smile twitching around the edges of her lips.

Even though Lycoris knew her father didn't mean it, she still squirmed. This was the first time she had fought Shepard since the Commander had learned about her relationship with Athena, and she wasn't looking forward to it. As a hero, Commander Shepard was awe-inspiring. As an overprotective father, she was terrifying.  _ I think I know how the Reapers must have felt. They were doomed from the start. _

A gloved hand stroked down the side of her arm, and she turned her head in surprise. "Relax, Corrie," Athena whispered. "Di and Nezzy won't stand a chance against us."

"What about your dad?" she asked, praying her voice wouldn't squeak.

"Don't worry about her," Athena said with a soft kiss on her cheek. "She likes you a lot more since you saved my life on Omega."

Honestly, Athena had been the one to save her life, but Lycoris didn't say so. It was an argument she knew she wouldn't win. "Yeah?" she mumbled. "Then why do I get the feeling I'm still going to walk out of here with a bunch of bruises?"

"If you don't focus, those bruises will be courtesy of me," Aria said. "Watch the timer. We're about to start."

As the VI announced their names, Lycoris's stomach twisted into nervous knots. She wished they had booked a private simulator instead of a public one. The only thing worse than getting her ass kicked by her girlfriend's father was getting it kicked in front of a bunch of anonymous spectators. Landing a few hits before Shepard blasted her out of the arena was about the best she could hope for.

Finally, the gates whooshed open, inviting her to her doom. Lycoris let her father and Athena take the lead, not caring if it seemed cowardly. She hoped they would meet holograms on the battlefield first, but she doubted she would be that lucky. While she slunk behind, Aria and Athena found tactical positions. Athena ducked behind the wall dividing the outermost ring from the inner ones, peeking just over the top. Aria was less cautious. She stood tall, purple-white light flickering up and down her arms, unafraid of whoever their enemies might be.

They didn't have to wait long to find out. The crack of a turret firing made Lycoris flinch.  _ Cerberus. Great. Shepard probably picked them just to fuck with me. _ She joined Athena behind the wall, summoning her own biotics and trying not to breathe too heavily. Of all the fake opponents Armax Arena had to offer, Cerberus was her least-favorite. She even preferred Mirror Matches.

The first assault troopers appeared a few seconds later, submachine guns aimed and ready. Even though she knew they weren't real, Lycoris found the muffled breathing and garbled orders coming from behind their helmets unsettling—even more unsettling than usual, thanks to her jangled nerves. But there wasn't time to worry about it. Athena had already popped up from behind the wall to throw a singularity field at the first group.

The attack spurred Lycoris into action. She jumped up too, lashing the floating soldiers and jerking them toward her. They exploded in a wave of pixelated blue light, and the scoreboard above them chirped. "Come on," Athena said, grinning broadly. "Let's try and get closer. There's usually a group of Phantoms bringing up the rear."

"What about my Dad?"

Another low boom and an even louder chirp above them answered that question. "She's defending our flank so we can move up. Let's go!"

Reluctantly, Lycoris followed Athena, skirting the outer wall in a half-crouch.  _ Please don't run into a turret. Please don't run into a turret. Please don't run into— _

They ran into a turret as soon as they rounded the next corner. Lycoris threw up a barrier on instinct, shielding them from the sharp rounds. They scrambled back to re-group, Athena grinning while she groaned. Athena launched a warp at the turret almost effortlessly, enveloping it in a shining coat of blue, and Lycoris sent a reave rocketing after. It blasted apart at the double-hit, knocking over the engineers crouching behind.

“Hey, we’re ahead,” Athena said, pointing up. “Look!”

Lycoris risked a glance at the scoreboard. They were in the lead by a few hundred points, although most of that was probably thanks to her father. The showy explosions coming from the other side of the circular arena had to be her.

Another shudder rattled the walls, and the numbers changed. “... Not anymore,” Lycoris sighed.

"Then we need to move." Athena grabbed her hand, practically dragging her forward past the broken turret. "If we kill a few phantoms, we'll be back in the lead."

_ Great. Phantoms.  _ She hated those stupid things even more than she hated turrets. It made her sick to think of her father fighting them for real, even if Aria always claimed adjutants were worse...

A glowing red dot appeared in the middle of Athena's forehead, followed by the high-pitched whine of a sniper rifle. Lycoris forgot all about the phantoms. "Duck!" she shouted, dragging Athena flat to the ground. They fell together, just in time. The nemesis fired, missing them by a few inches at most. She stayed on the ground, but Athena didn't hesitate. She lunged forward, biotics swimming around her body in a shield. A stasis field went screaming in the sniper's direction, and after a pause, the scoreboard beeped.

"Nice hit," Lycoris said as she climbed back to her feet.

"Thanks.” Athena attempted to help her up, but also snuck in a quick squeeze of her backside. The feel of hot breath against her neck made Lycoris shiver, and not from fear for once. "But why are you being so skittish today? You're not that scared of my dad, are you?"

Lycoris  _ was _ that scared, but she just coughed and looked away.

"Tell you what," Athena said, pressing close until Lycoris could feel the outline of her body through their leathers. "If we win, I'll make it worth your while..."

All the blood pumping through Lycoris's heart suddenly shot straight between her legs. "Worth my while how?"

Athena drew her pistol, turning her head sideways and extending her arm toward a staggered group of assault troopers stomping around the corner. Her aim was scarily accurate—straight through their helmets. They erupted into a shower of tiny squares, disappearing from existence. Lycoris started to help, but she didn't even need to. Athena dispatched them in a matter of seconds, and for some reason, the calm way she did it made Lycoris's stomach flutter. "Any way you want." She lowered her pistol and winked. "But to be honest, I'll probably do the same even if we lose."

The promise of a reward boosted Lycoris's spirits a little. She raised her own pistol, popping the heat sink. "You've convinced me. Let's go. If your dad kicks my ass, you'll just have to kiss it better."

They moved a lot faster once she stopped cowering. She and Athena fell into a rhythm, dispatching the holographic enemies as quickly as they spawned. Athena primed their targets, and she exploded them with a devastating series of reaves and lashes. It was neat and methodical, and her confidence grew as their numbers climbed on the scoreboard.

_ 5000... 5200... 5400... Maybe we can win this after all. _ She stole another glance at Athena, watching as she sent a wriggling centurion flying through the air to smash apart against a nearby wall.  _ Damn. Is it weird that I'm getting turned on by watching her fight, or—? _

A slight shimmer rippled through the air around them, and Lycoris was instantly on her guard again.  _ Phantom! Shit.  _ She only had a moment at most. The damn things were deadly fast. She reached inward and summoned all the energy she could, gathering and gathering until it built past the breaking point. It released in a brilliant flare, and all her biotics pulsed outward, lifting her several inches off the ground.

The phantom's shields dropped. It went staggering back, rocking with the force of the blow. But before Lycoris could land and finish it off, a blazing streak of blue screamed past her. The bright light struck the phantom head-on, and the ground rocked with the force of the collision. Commander Shepard stepped through its disintegrating body, shotgun raised to fire.

"Not bad, Lycoris.” The Commander’s lopsided grin was friendly, but her eyes were narrowed like a predator's, and the end of her gun didn't dip an inch. "But not quite fast enough."

Lycoris froze. She knew she should do something—anything—at least try to defend herself. But being held at gunpoint by her girlfriend's father, the most celebrated war hero in the galaxy, was horrifying. She flashed back to the T'Soni estate, to the anger in Shepard's eyes at catching her in Athena's bed. Her legs locked in place, and her arm refused to hold her pistol up.

"Dad!" A warp shot past Lycoris's cheek, lobbing straight toward Shepard's chest. "Stop scaring my girlfriend."

Normally, Lycoris would have lit up at the word 'girlfriend'. Weeks after their return from Omega, she still loved hearing Athena say it. But she knew she only had a few precious moments to escape, and she used them to her advantage. She dropped back to join Athena, shoring up her biotic armor and forming a light barrier.

Shepard only smirked. "If she's your girlfriend now, I'm  _ supposed _ to scare her."

Athena's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Why are we talking about this now?" she demanded, biotics flaring around her fists. "We're supposed to be..." She whipped around, one hand snapping forward. Twin cries filled the arena at the same time, and Lycoris watched both Athena and Benezia freeze in place, trapped by identical stasis fields. Athena had been quicker on the draw, but not quick enough to save herself.

"Damn it, The," Benezia grumbled, pulling an irritated face. "How did you get so fast?"

"Maybe you shouldn't be so obvious," Athena taunted. "I could hear you breathing behind me."

Lycoris tuned out their banter. She turned back to Shepard, swallowing around the fearful lump in her throat. "Hey, look," she said, pointing up at the scoreboard with a nervous grin. It chirped obnoxiously as Athena and Benezia's points for hitting each other were added. "The scoreboard's even..." She began backing away as Shepard's shotgun trained back on her. "Maybe we should just... call it a draw?"

"I don't think so, Miss Tevos. We have to follow the rules. But in the spirit of generosity, I'll give you a five second head start."

Her father would have found the offer insulting, but Lycoris wasn't ashamed. She ran as fast as she could, leaving Athena and Benezia behind without a second thought. She whipped back around the corner, ramming straight into another squad of assault troopers. This time, they didn't scare her. She blasted them away with a flare as soon as she saw them and kept barreling ahead, not even bothering to watch them burst apart.

The engineer around the next corner barely slowed her down. She warped his head off before he could set up his turret, still sprinting at top speed. She could  _ smell _ singed air behind her and hear the hiss-and-boom of Shepard's pursuit.  _ Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit... _

Even the pair of phantoms she found around the third turn were only a passing annoyance compared to the terror behind her. Before they could raise their swords, she hit them with a lash, flinging them further than Athena had thrown the centurion earlier. She raced on, praying to the Goddess. If Shepard caught her, they'd be scraping her off the ground to carry her out of the arena. She'd never see Athena again. The little blue children they'd planned for would never exist...

_ FWOOM. _

A powerful flash of blue sent Lycoris sailing forward. She tripped over her own feet, colliding face-first with the ground. She flopped onto her back, staring up at the sky and waiting for certain death, but it never came. Instead, the world around her continued to spin and shake. Biotics crashed everywhere, and she felt like she was trapped in the middle of a storm and an earthquake all at once.

Then, as suddenly as the chaos started, everything went still. Bells rang out, and the light above her intensified.  _ That's it, _ Lycoris thought.  _ I'm dead. My girlfriend's father murdered me, and this is the Embrace of the Goddess. _ But gradually, she realized that most of her body still hurt. She couldn't be dead if she was this bruised. As far as she knew, corpses couldn't feel pain.

She blinked to clear her vision, and the light swimming above her became more distinct. She was staring up into one of the overhead spotlights, and the scoreboard was dinging. _Team Kurinth:_ _10,000_.

"Good job, kid," her father's familiar voice said. Two blurry figures were peering down at her, and to her surprise, both of them seemed concerned. "Looks like you won the match for us after all. You were technically the last one standing."

"I... I was?"

A gloved hand reached out, and Lycoris allowed Commander Shepard to haul her to her feet. "Yup. Aria and I took each other out while you were flying through the air. You need to work on your landings, though. That one looked pretty rough."

"What about Diana?" Lycoris asked, still a bit dazed.

"She put up a tough fight," Aria said, giving Shepard a friendly clap on the shoulder. "You should be proud, Shepard. Five hundred years or so of training, and she would have stood a chance."

While Lycoris tried to get her bearings, two more figures raced around the corner. Athena jogged toward her, Benezia hot on her heels. "Corrie, you did it! We won!"

Before Lycoris realized what was happening, Athena flung two joyful arms around her neck and pulled her in for a messy, excited kiss. At the feel of Athena's lips on hers, she finally relaxed, completely forgetting about their audience. Instead, she remembered the promise Athena had made her earlier.  _ 'If we win, I'll make it worth your while...'  _ She trembled as her filthy mind raced through all the possible ways that could come to pass.

"It was dumb luck, but I'll take the credit," she panted when they broke apart.

"All right," Shepard drawled, placing a hand on her shoulder and pulling her back a few inches. "Break it up, you two. I think we need to institute a three second rule for kisses when your parents are around."

Athena looked like she wanted to protest, but Lycoris placed a finger over her lips. "That sounds more than fair, Commander."

Shepard grinned. "At least you're not calling me Admiral. But really, Corrie, I've known you since the day you were born. I'm still just Aunt Shepard."

"Give it a century, and she'll be calling you 'Dad' too," Aria drawled. One of Shepard's eyes twitched, but Lycoris didn't care. She had gained Shepard’s approval, grudging though it was. She had won their match by the skin of her teeth, even if she had made a fool of herself in the process. And best of all, she had a whole evening with Athena to look forward to.

“So, about that reward,” Athena whispered, so only she could hear. “Does it involve your head between my legs, or mine between yours?”

Lycoris blushed. “Both,” she rasped, rubbing awkwardly at the back of her neck. Her skin was still incredibly overheated, even though she wasn’t running for her life anymore. “Both is good.”


	7. Aria tells Lycoris about Liselle (PG)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short, but sad. A tumblr prompt about Aria telling Lycoris about Liselle.

“Daddy?”

Aria sighed, forcing her scowl into a neutral expression. Lycoris had been pestering her all morning, tugging at her sleeves when she sat down to work and running between her legs whenever she got up. Her concentration was already shot, but the constant interruptions were making things worse.

‘ _It isn’t the kid’s fault,’_ she reminded herself for what felt like the hundredth time. ‘ _She’s only eighteen, and she has no idea what today is…’_

She cut off that train of thought as swiftly as possible. She wasn’t the type for remembering anniversaries, happy or otherwise, but Liselle’s death was one she just couldn’t shake. The loss had healed with time, but every once in a while, it would crack open, and all the old pain would pour out. She had spent the past week in a knot of anger and anxiety, snapping at nearly everyone who spoke to her and checking in on Lycoris several times a night while she slept.

 _‘Corrie.’_ As much as she wanted to follow Tevos’s example and work to dull the pain, the death of her first daughter wasn’t any excuse to ignore her second. Once she had composed herself, she switched off her omnitool and gave the tiny girl hovering by her knees her full attention. “What is it, kid?” she asked in as pleasant a voice as she could muster. It came out sounding flat, but Lycoris didn’t seem to notice. She was all smiles, proudly holding up a tablet in her hands.

“I drew you a picture!”

Aria pressed her lips together. She wasn’t in any kind of mood to admire Lycoris’s scribbles, but the sooner she looked and offered some form of passable praise, the sooner she could send the kid off to play and retreat back into her shell. She took the tablet and set it on her lap, pretending to study it closely.

Then she actually did study it closely.

Instead of Blasto, or an elcor, or yet another lopsided portrait of Aunt Shepard, Lycoris had drawn four asari holding hands. The corner of Aria’s mouth twitched when she recognized one as herself. ‘ _At least the kid drew me in my jacket. Not a bad job for an eighteen-year-old.’_ Tevos was also easy to recognize in her long dress, although her facial tattoos were something of a mess. But the third figure… She gasped a little, and her heart clenched. It had her coloring, but its face was bare. ‘ _How did she know? Where could she have gotten…’_

“Mommy told me why you yelled at me the other day,” Lycoris said, looking up at her with worried eyes. “She said you didn’t mean it, and you were sad because you lost someone. She showed me a holo of a girl who looked like you and told me I used to have a sister.”

Aria’s lips moved, but she couldn’t speak. She didn’t know what to say.

“I wanted to meet her, but mommy said she had given herself to the universe. We miss her, but she’s still with us.”

After a long moment, Aria swallowed past the lump in her throat. ‘ _Shit. Only Tevos could condense something as complicated as Siari down into two sentences.’_ But as she looked at Lycoris, she couldn’t help but hope that there was some truth to those words. If everyone’s energy did return to fill new vessels after death, perhaps Lycoris had a little of Liselle in her. It was a comforting thought, even if it was impractical and unprovable.

“Your mother is a wise woman,” she said at last, when she realized Lycoris was waiting for her to respond. “What did she do with the holo?”

“She gave it to me.” Lycoris reached into her pocket and pulled out a small square. She didn’t activate it, but Aria didn’t need her to. She could already remember Liselle’s face with perfect clarity. “Mommy said I could keep it. Can I?”

Aria nodded. Then, she patted the empty space beside her on the couch. Lycoris crawled up, and Aria hugged her tight, setting the tablet aside and pulling her daughter into her lap instead. “Yeah, kid. Yeah, you can keep it.”


	8. Lycoris and Athena find out their parents are swingers (M)

 

"Mom? Aria? What are you  _ doing _ ?"

Lycoris's jaw dropped. Unlike Athena, she couldn't force her lips to form words. Whatever sounds she might have made were stifled by the shocking sight in front of her. This wasn't the first time she had caught one or both of her parents in a compromising position, but it was by far the worst. The last thing she had expected to find upon entering her father's not-so-secret dungeon was her mother-in-law, stripped to her underwear and bound to the very X-frame that she and Athena had snuck in to use.

She scanned the scene with growing horror, searching for any scrap of evidence that it  _ wasn't _ what she thought, but everything she saw confirmed her worst fears. Aria had cast off her infamous white jacket, and she held a leather crop in one hand—a leather crop with a tab that perfectly matched the light purple bruises scattered across Liara's inner thighs.

_ Oh fuck, I'm staring at my bondmate's mom's legs... in my Dad's dungeon... while they're both half naked. Half naked together. _ Lycoris's gaze darted back and forth, but there was nowhere safe to look. She would have clapped both hands over her burning face if she'd been able to move even the slightest bit.  _ This can't be happening. This can't be happening. Goddess, this can’t possibly be happening... _

Unfortunately, Athena's outburst had drawn unwanted attention. Liara's eyes widened, and she gasped in surprise, her freckled cheeks flushing violet. "Athena? Lycoris? How did you get down here?"

Lycoris had no idea how to answer. She was too busy trying and failing not to peer at the skycar wreck in front of her. While she fumbled and stammered, Athena spoke up, placing both hands on her hips. "How did  _ you _ get down here, Mom?"

"The elevator," Aria drawled. Her voice was dry, almost disinterested, and although she wasn't smiling, her expression didn't read embarrassment either. "But Liara was invited... unlike the two of you."

Lycoris turned to Athena, silently begging her to drop the line of questioning so they could both leave as quickly as possible, but it was much too late to flee. Athena had already fixed Aria with a murderous glare. "What do you mean, invited? How long has  _ this _ —" She waved one hand wildly through the air, and Lycoris had to step away to avoid it. "—been going on behind my Dad's back?"

Liara didn't respond to the accusations right away. Instead, she sighed and turned to Aria as best she could while bound. "Let me down, please. If the four of us are going to have this conversation, I don't want to do it tied up."

Aria set the crop on top of her carefully-folded jacket and approached the x-frame, kneeling to undo the restraints around Liara's ankles. Unfortunately, the new position put her head directly in line with Liara's pelvis. Lycoris blushed, suddenly finding it difficult to breathe. A large part of her was disgusted— _ come on, Dad, do you have to hold her calves while you're doing that? _ —but in some ways, the scene was almost like a holo someone had taken of her and Athena a few centuries in the future. She couldn't deny that Liara and Athena shared a very strong family resemblance...

_ No. My mind is  _ not _ going there. I'm gonna drag Athena back outside, head for the nearest bar, and keep doing shots of ryncol until I can't even remember my own name. Happy fucking Anniversary to us. _

"We don't need to 'have a conversation'," Athena snapped. "If you aren't going to tell Dad about this, I will."

Liara stepped back onto the floor, taking the white jacket Aria offered and draping it over her shoulders for some extra coverage. "Actually, your father already knows about this, and I would appreciate if you didn't yell. There isn't any need for you to raise your voice, especially to me."

"Isn't any need? You—"

"Athena, shut up." Aria folded her arms casually across her chest, shifting her weight to one hip. "This isn't a new development. It's been going on since before you were even born—with your father's full and enthusiastic participation, by the way."

Athena gaped. For once, she didn't have anything to say.

Unfortunately, Lycoris's voice chose that exact moment to return. Her words came back in a rush, too loud and too sudden and at precisely the wrong time. "You mean the two of you have been fucking for the past  _ one hundred and twelve years _ ?"

Liara pulled a face, but didn't deny it. "I wouldn't put it quite so crudely..."

Aria gave her a teasingly skeptical look. "Yes you would."

"But to answer your question, yes. The four of us have been involved for well over a century."

_ The four of them? Oh no...  _ "Wait, Mom too?"

A smirk twitched at the edges of Aria's lips. "Who do you think came up with the idea?"

Lycoris felt the strange urge to burst out laughing. Picturing her mother—her proper, formal, respectable mother—actually suggesting such an arrangement was almost too ridiculous to believe.  _ Then again, she did bond with Dad. And they do have the dungeon... No. Not thinking about this. I already know way too much. _

"Just to clarify, there isn't anything deceptive going on here," Liara said, tugging the jacket more securely around her shoulders. She locked eyes with Athena, and her look of embarrassment became one of fierce, protective tenderness. “I love your father with all my heart, Athena. Our bond isn't lessened by the fact that I care deeply for Aria and Tevos as well. In fact, our commitment is stronger for it.”

Some of Athena’s anger drained away. Her shoulders slumped, and a small line formed in the middle of her forehead. “You mean this isn’t just some weird sex thing? Are you… dating or something?” Her face blanched a paler shade of blue, and a flash of disgust returned. “Oh Goddess, you are. My parents are dating my bondmate’s parents...”

“Please don’t say that,” Lycoris mumbled, but she wasn’t certain if anyone actually heard her.

“I suppose this is my fault,” Liara said with a note of regret. “Your father and I should have introduced you to the idea of different relationship models more explicitly.”

Lycoris tried not to twitch. Some of the conversations she’d had with her own parents while growing up suddenly made a lot more sense.  _ Shit. I didn’t have a clue they were talking about themselves…  _ Several more pieces clicked into place. _ Oh Goddess. All those sleepovers, the vid nights and book club meetings, the double vacations… they’ve been doing this right under our noses for our entire lives! My childhood is officially ruined. _

“Not your fault,” Aria said. “Shepard’s the one with the human hang-ups.”

“Even so…”

“I don’t get it, Mom,” Athena said, in a much softer voice than the one she had used before. Her righteous indignation dissolved completely, and it was replaced by something almost sad. “I thought you two had the perfect relationship. I always hoped I’d find what you had. I mean, you brought Dad back from the dead. Dad saved the  _ whole galaxy _ for you. And despite all of that, you’re saying you still aren’t enough for each other.”

Instinctively, Lycoris took Athena’s hand. Athena gripped back hard, but she didn’t mind. She just hoped her bondmate could sense what she was thinking. _ Don’t worry, The. You’ll always be more than enough for me. _

Liara started to answer, but Aria gave a subtle shake of her head, and they shared a silent moment.

“Look, Athena... kid…” Lycoris squirmed a little as her father’s eyes fell on her too. “This isn’t about not being enough. Love isn’t a finite resource.” She offered a smile—a real one—although Lycoris sensed there was a great deal of weight hiding behind it. “Trust me. I’ve watched lovers and friends and one of my own children die. It’s really fucking tempting to just give up on feelings and stop caring.” To Lycoris’s surprise, Aria reached out to take Liara’s hand, just like she was holding Athena’s. “So when you find someone you want to take that risk on, someone who’s worth it, you don’t turn them down. You hold onto that love, no matter where it comes from. Tevos taught me that.”

“And this is your definition of finding love?” Athena asked, in a surprisingly neutral voice. “Tying my Mom up and hitting her with a riding crop?”

Aria snorted. “Like you’re one to talk. You and Lycoris snuck in here to do the same damn thing. It’s your anniversary, isn’t it?”

Lycoris let out a soft groan of embarrassment, unable to meet anyone else’s eyes.

“It is.” Athena tugged softly at her arm,  _ finally _ pulling her back toward the elevator. “And I think Corrie and I should go celebrate somewhere else.”

“Athena, wait—”

Liara stepped forward, but Athena held up her free hand. “Mom, it’s okay.” Her voice cracked a little, and Lycoris felt the fingers laced through hers tremble slightly. “I know how much you love Dad. I’ve watched you two my whole life. If this… whatever it is... doesn’t change that, then it’s none of my business. I’m sorry for snapping at you.”

A relieved smile spread across Liara’s face. “Thank you, Athena. I would give you a hug, but I’m afraid I’m rather underdressed.”

Lycoris was suddenly reminded just how much of Liara’s bare skin was on display. She didn’t steal another peek, but it didn’t matter. The image of her bondmate’s mother stretched out across the x-frame in lacy black wisps of nothing was already burned into her brain. Somehow, it was much, much worse than the innocent times she had seen Liara completely naked on the beach as a child.

“What about you, kid?” Aria asked, shaking her out of her uncomfortable thoughts. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”

“I’m fine,” she mumbled. “I’m not mad. I just… I  _ really _ need some alcohol right now.”

“Then go get some,” Aria said, waving them toward the elevator. “You’ve been pestering us long enough.”

Liara heaved a sigh of exasperation. “Aria! Surely you aren’t suggesting that we continue? Our _children_ just barged in on us. I’m hardly in the mood.”

“Hey, I don’t want to waste the opportunity. You  _ know _ Tevos didn’t drag Shepard to Nos Astra with her just to look at overpriced shoes.”

“We’ll… uh, okay, we’ll just leave now,” Lycoris stammered, rushing headlong for the elevator and pulling Athena behind her. “Bye! Happy anniversary.”  _ And let’s never talk about this again. _

“You do realize it’s  _ our _ anniversary, right?” Athena pointed out.

Lycoris continued slamming on the call button. “Whatever. It’s not like things can get much more awkward...”

“Come on, Liara. You wanted to keep going that one time Grizz walked in on us.”

“Those were entirely different circumstances! Just because I—”

Thankfully, the elevator doors closed in time to cut off the rest of Liara’s explanation. Lycoris let out a heavy whoosh of breath, bracing her back against the wall and slumping over. The only thing worse than finding out her parents and in-laws were sexually involved was discovering that one of her dearest childhood caregivers had known about it, too. “Okay, so maybe I was wrong.”

“Corrie…” Athena took her hands again, running a thumb over the tops of her knuckles. “Are you really okay?”

“Yeah, I guess. Shouldn’t I be asking you that question? You’re the one who blew up at them back there.”

The elevator came to a stop on the main floor, and they both hurried back into the apartment. “I’m… confused. And pretty embarrassed. And really, really grossed out. But if they're happy, I guess I should be happy for them. I know my Mom and Dad still love each other. They’re so cute with each other that it’s disgusting.” Athena’s eyes narrowed, and Lycoris suddenly found herself pinned to the wall beside the front door. “But don't get any ideas about finding a piece on the side too. I still want you all to myself.”

Lycoris began to protest, but her reassurances were quickly swallowed by a hard, hot kiss. Athena’s lips devoured hers until all thoughts of her father, Liara, and the dungeon fled from her mind. All the warmth in her body dropped directly between her legs, and she groaned into the sweetness of her bondmate’s mouth.

“Don't worry,” she panted when they finally pulled apart. Somehow, her hands had migrated to the firm swell of Athena’s ass, but she couldn't find any reason to move them. “I'm happy with the way things are.”

“I bet I can make you happier,” Athena murmured, squeezing her hips.

Lycoris whimpered, pulling her lower lip between her teeth. “Don't be a tease. We’re  _ not  _ fucking in my parents’ apartment, especially after what we saw…”

“Bar first?” Athena’s fingertips slipped just beneath her shirt, skimming her tense stomach. “Erasing those memories might be a good idea.”

“Definitely,” Lycoris said, breathing a sigh of relief. Alcohol would probably prevent any lingering images of Liara from cropping up at inappropriate times.

“Just don't blame me if you see your Dad in my head. I'm a one-asari girl, but those arms without her jacket…”

“Seriously, The? We aren't even drunk yet.”

“Give it twenty minutes,” Athena said, peeling away from her and opening the door. “The bar down the street’s about to get a lot of our business.”


	9. Lycoris is obsessed with Justicars (T)

**_2206 CE_ **

"Stop, criminals! Prepare to face justice!"

Aria sighed at the noise, pressing two fingers into her throbbing temples. She could already predict what was coming through decades of experience, but that didn't stop her from hoping she was wrong. The sound of shouting from Lycoris's distant bedroom was a frequent occurrence, especially during playdates, and she refused to abandon her reclined position on the couch unless it was absolutely necessary. Until she heard something break or someone start to cry, she was determined to stick to her hands-off approach.

"Never! You won't take me alive, Justicar!"

In a rare attempt at optimism, or perhaps foolishness, she kept her eyes fixed on the screen of her omnitool, trying to focus back on the message in front of her. She scanned it quickly, picking up key words:  _ altered shipping reports... missing crates... declining profit margins... _

"I don't need to take you alive. Find peace in the embrace of the Goddess!"

With a flick, Aria closed the message and opened a blank one to respond. Grizz's report had been thorough, and it even contained a name: Santo Briggs, a mid-level employee in one of her warehouses on Omega, and soon-to-be corpse if he truly had been stealing from her. She had little tolerance for thieves—especially stupid ones who were sloppy enough to get caught with their hands dirty...

_ "Ow!" _

A loud crash, followed by two high-pitched squeals, was enough to snap Aria's concentration. She flinched, just barely, and then rolled her eyes, uncurling herself from the armrest. When the sound of sobbing didn't start up after a few seconds, she paused in the middle of the living room, recording a brief message to send along to Grizz. "Take care of it for me. Cleanly. And tell whoever draws the short straw to leave the body in recognizable condition. I noticed in the report that he has a kid."

With business taken care of, she headed down the hallway, stopping at the wide-open door to Lycoris's bedroom. Her daughter and Athena were both standing on the bed, wearing identical looks of guilt, and it only took Aria a split second to notice the broken shards of a seashell lamp scattered across the floor.

"What did I tell you about biotics in the house?" Aria said, folding her arms across her chest and leaning against the doorjamb. "Your mother and I bought that on Nevos. It isn't easily replaced."  _ And you could have hurt yourself. _

Lycoris's eyes darted down to her feet. "I'm sorry, Dad. I'll clean it up. The and I were just playing Justicars and criminals..."

"It was my fault," Athena insisted, scrambling over the side of the bed and hurrying toward the mess. "I'll do it..."

"No, you won't," Aria said, pulling Athena back with a slight tug of her own biotics before her bare feet could get too close to any jagged edges. "Lycoris, go bring me the trash bin. Athena, stay on the bed. I'm not giving you back to your father with a bunch of cuts."

Sulkily, the two children obeyed, while she turned her attention to the shattered pieces. With a sweep of her hand, they floated off the floor, allowing her to survey the damage. No amount of glue was going to fix the unfortunate lamp, and she resigned herself to purchasing a new one. She had never liked the touristy thing—which was why it had met its end in Lycoris's room instead of hers—but Tevos had been fond of it. A souvenir of their honeymoon, she always said when Aria complained about it, as if her tattoo and their bondmate bracelets weren't enough.

When Lycoris returned with the bin, Aria shuttled the broken shells into it, careful not to let them get anywhere near her daughter's hands. Once they clattered to the bottom, she checked the floor to make sure she hadn't missed anything. "All right. The two of you are staying in the living room with me until Shepard comes by to pick you up."

"Can we watch a vid?" Athena asked, apparently hopeful that they might escape a more serious punishment.

Aria thought about it. She didn't want to reward bad behavior, but it would keep Lycoris and Athena quiet so she could finish the rest of her work. "Fine, but no snacks. Shepard's bringing dinner."

Lycoris started to brighten as well. "I want to watch  _ The Third Oath!  _ Please? It's my favorite—"

"No," Aria said flatly, taking the bin from Lycoris and carrying it back to its proper place. "I've already watched it with you once this week. Nothing to do with Justicars, please."

Lycoris's face fell, and Aria felt a small tug in her chest. Her daughter's fascination with the Justicars and their Code wasn't a recent development, and it seemed to be unwavering. The full digital deluxe collection of  _ Justicar Heroes _ on Lycoris's terminal and the posters on her walls were proof enough. Personally, the one of Samara above Lycoris's desk was Aria's favorite. She had been reluctant to let Lycoris hang it at first, but the abundance of cleavage had eventually convinced her.

_ Just because she wastes that rack being celibate doesn’t mean I can’t admire it. _

"Fine," she said, tearing her eyes away when she felt Lycoris tug gently at the sleeve of her jacket. "You can watch your vid. Just remember that it’s fiction. Real Justicars don't behave anything like those actresses. They're dangerous and uncompromising, and they aren't allowed to have families..." She cast a glance at Athena, and was pleased with Lycoris followed it with a look of concern. "Or friends. They give up everything to follow an ancient set of rules that doesn't make sense half the time, and most of them die violent, gruesome deaths."

"Really?" Lycoris asked, eyes wide and shining with awe.

Aria sighed. "Noble sacrifice isn't all it's cracked up to be, kid. Ask your Aunt Shepard. I bet if you gave her a choice between being a hero again and minding her own damn business, she'd pick the smart option." In fact, Aria knew as much from some of the melds they'd shared. Although Shepard's frustrating heroic streak still burned bright, the scars of sacrifice lingered as painful reminders. It would take a truly catastrophic event to bring her out of her well-deserved retirement.

Sadly, Lycoris didn't seem to be paying attention to her lackluster attempts at offering advice. She was squirming, fidgeting from foot to foot, and Athena's humming presence a foot away wasn't helping. "Just go," Aria said, waving them toward the living room. "And remember, no snacks."

Lycoris and Athena blew past her, charging out of the room and down the hall, and a few seconds later, Aria heard the telltale thud of two tiny bodies hitting the couch. She followed them at a much more reasonable pace, activating her Omnitool again. There were still several more messages marked 'urgent' that needed her attention.

* * *

**_2210 CE_ **

"Please, Aria, tell me you didn't," Tevos sighed, pinching the tense surface of her forehead. She had left work with a throbbing headache, and the traffic on the way home had only made it worse—traffic caused, she had found out via her omnitool, because of an accident right in the middle of the Presidium.  _ No. Not an accident. When there are guns and skycar chases involved, 'accident' hardly covers it. _

When Aria didn't answer right away, choosing to sit silently at the kitchen island instead, Tevos knew her night was about to get even worse. She stopped trying to massage away her headache and folded her arms across her chest, tapping the tip of her shoe expectantly. "We've talked about this," she said, finally causing Aria to look up from the datapad she had been scrolling through. "I don't always agree with the way you handle things on Omega, but I admit that it's under your control, and you do keep some semblance of order and stability there. But this is the Citadel. We have laws—laws I help to create and uphold—and you can't simply break them and then bribe your way out of the consequences."

"I didn't bribe anyone this time," Aria said at last. She set her datapad aside, turning on her stool and resting both elbows against the bar. Despite the casual pose, Tevos could tell that she was anything but relaxed. Her shoulders were tense, and her eyes were dark and calculating. "I wasn't even at the Presidium today. I was home, with our daughter."

Tevos narrowed her own eyes, refusing to be placated. "Don't play word games with me. I'm a politician. I'll always win. Were you or were you not responsible for the deaths of those three people today?"

Aria sighed, shaking her head slightly. "Fine. I ordered a hit. Is that what you want to hear?"

"Not at all," Tevos said. Despite her best efforts, her voice was creeping up in pitch and volume, and she had to swallow and pause to regain some control. "You can't just kill everyone who does something you don't like, Aria.  _ Especially _ here. And don't you dare tell me it's just business. Other people run successful businesses without resorting to murder."

Aria's expression went from unreadable to icy in an instant. "You knew about my line of work before you bonded with me, Thea. I won't allow you to dictate terms to me now. It was necessary—"

"Necessary? Is that supposed to make me feel better? You killed someone today, even if it was just through your omnitool. Someone is  _ no longer breathing _ because you decided their existence was inconvenient to you."

"Not just inconvenient," Aria said. "Would it make you feel better if I told you one of them wanted to kill me first?"

"A third of the people on Omega would probably kill you if they thought they had a chance," Tevos snapped. "Does that mean you should just blow up your station to get them all?"

Aria's eyes flashed. She left the stool by the island, standing up and closing the distance between them. "You're being unreasonable. I don't kill people because I think it's fun. My job is dangerous, and I make enemies as a matter of course. Those enemies have to be dealt with, unless you want to be a widow and see Lycoris lose her father."

"Don't," Tevos said, stepping back and holding up her hand. The knot in her stomach was almost painful, and she fought to stop her shaking. "Don't use our daughter to manipulate me out of being angry..."

"Mommy?"

The sound of a soft, familiar voice coming from behind her made Tevos turn in surprise. To her dismay, Lycoris was standing at the entrance to the hallway. Although she was dressed in her favorite costume armor, complete with the diadem in the middle of her forehead, her face was clearly worried. She almost looked like she was about to cry.

Immediately, Tevos shifted priorities. Her argument with Aria could wait. It wasn't the first they'd had, and it wouldn’t be the last. First, she had to find out how much Lycoris had overheard. "Come here, Corrie," she said, dropping to her knees and opening her arms.

Instead of running into them, Lycoris crept into the room, fidgeting nervously. "I heard you come home, and then I heard shouting."

To Tevos's relief, Aria approached and put a hand on the back of her shoulder. She stiffened slightly at the touch, but allowed it for Lycoris's sake. "Everything's fine, kid," Aria said, in a much calmer voice than Tevos had managed herself. "Sometimes, adults have arguments. This has nothing to do with you."

"So, you aren't going to stop being bondmates?"

Aria gave her a look, and Tevos's heart sank. "Of course not, Corrie. We aren't going to stop being a family. Your father and I just need some time to talk. But first, why don't I take you back to your room? I'll read some  _ Justicar Heroes _ with you if you'd like."

Tevos knew she had succeeded when Lycoris's face brightened at the suggestion. "Okay," she said, a smile creeping across her face. "Can daddy come too?"

"I'm going to stay here and work for a few more minutes," Aria said, "but I'll come in to get you later. All right?"

"Okay," Lycoris said. She shuffled over to Aria, flinging her arms around Aria's hips and leaning in to her stomach. "I love you, daddy."

Tevos couldn't help softening a little as she watched Aria place an affectionate hand on the top of Lycoris's crest. "I love you too, kid."

* * *

**_2216 CE, Omega_ **

"Shit," Aria hissed through gritted teeth, clutching her stinging side with one arm and plastering her back against the wall of the nearest building. The sound of gunfire had stopped, but that didn't mean she was safe. What had started as a simple errand to the Gozu district had turned into a complete clusterfuck, and she wasn't even sure how many enemies were waiting for her around the corner.

A century ago, she would have charged forward anyway, shields flaring and eyes glowing, but she wasn't the same person she had been then. She was slower, sloppier,  _ weaker _ thanks to her recent hands-off approach to running her station, and the round that had grazed her ribs proved it. Instead, she activated her Omnitool, spitting out words in a harsh whisper. "Grizz, where the hell are you? Where's my back-up?"

Grizz's face flickered on her wrist, mandibles quivering with concern. "En route, Aria. We have your location." After a moment of hesitation, he continued. "Lycoris is with me—"

" _ Fuck.  _ Then don't come," Aria shouted. "Don't—"

But it was already too late. Another loud  _ boom _ shook the entire building she had braced herself against, and the acrid smell of explosives stung her nose. Rubble and scrapmetal started falling, and she bolted, shielding herself in a flare of purple and white as she searched for better cover. She found it—but unfortunately, the merchant's stand she had selected was already occupied. Three vorcha and a krogan were crouched behind it, dressed in Blood Pack colors and heavily armed. They seemed surprised to see her, but it didn't take them long to react. They raised their weapons, and Aria nearly groaned when she saw that one had a flamethrower.

_ Perfect. If these fuckers ruin my jacket, they're going to be smears in the middle of the street. _

A quick flare sent the three vorcha hurtling backwards. They shrieked and howled on their way through the air, but Aria didn't bother worrying about where they landed. Instead, she lunged for the krogan first, knowing he would be the toughest fight. He roared, thundering toward her with heavy, pounding feet, but she was faster. Her lash yanked him out of his stride, and the reave she sent straight toward his chest had him crumpling to his knees.

She made sure he couldn't get back up. Her pistol barked, and soon, the ground beneath his body was spattered with dull orange fluid. Once she was satisfied that he wouldn't regenerate, she turned her attention to the vorcha she had scattered. Two remained limp and broken, clearly already dead, but one was trying to stagger to his feet. He was the one with the flamethrower, although it had landed several yards away.

Calmly, Aria stepped over the body of the krogan and headed toward him. Judging from the panicked look he gave her, she doubted any more members of the Blood Pack were coming to save him—or if they were, they wouldn't arrive in time. "You picked a bad day to try and dethrone me," she said, tightening her finger on the trigger of her pistol. "That's  _ every _ day, by the way. Whose idea was this? Kryll's? I never should have left that sneaky, twisted little bastard in charge."

The vorcha shook, eyes rolling wildly with fear. " _ No kill me!" _ he hissed in terror, flecks of spit trembling at the corners of his enormous jaws.  _ "It an accident. Kryll no want to kill Aria—" _

Aria tapped the toe of her boot, far from impressed. "Oh, really? The shots fired at me in the middle of the street were an accident? The explosives at the base of the building were an  _ accident?"  _ She let the nose of the pistol twitch up, until it was pointing directly at the vorcha's face. "Well,  _ you're _ about to have an accident. And unlike you and the rest of the idiots Kryll sent on this little suicide mission, I don't miss."

She squeezed the trigger. The vorcha dropped to the ground. More blood pooled in the middle of the street.

"Dad?"

Aria jerked around in surprise, aiming her pistol instinctively and gathering crackling power around her hands, but when she saw who it was, she dropped both in an instant. Lycoris was standing before her, wide eyed and shaking, dressed in a clean, unscratched set of training armor.

"Lycoris, what are you doing here? Where is Grizz?"

Lycoris didn't need to answer her question. Moments later, Grizz and several other figures darted around the corner of the ruined building, sprinting across the street toward them. Aria narrowed her eyes, about to give in to the protective fury growing in her chest, but Lycoris shook her head. "It's not their fault. I got out of the car before Grizz could lock it." Her eyes scanned the toppled merchant stand, fixing on the four corpses before swiftly glancing away. "Dad... that last vorcha didn't have his weapon anymore. He was on the ground. He surrendered..."

Aria tucked her pistol away. Apparently, Lycoris had been standing behind her for more than just a few seconds. Resisting the impulse to pull her daughter into a hug, she reached down and clasped Lycoris's shoulder instead. "That's one thing those Justicars you like so much do right, kid. If you catch someone dangerous, you don't let them go. You kill them, before they can kill you first."

Lycoris looked away, unable to meet her eyes, but Aria didn't have time to say anything else. Grizz and the rest of her people had finally arrived, and she let go of Lycoris's arm, turning to meet him. "Took you long enough," she said. "What the fuck did you think you were doing, bringing the kid here? She isn’t even thirty, for Athame's sake."

Grizz started offering an explanation, but Aria was only half-listening. She could see Lycoris’s expression out of the corner of her eye, and it was still a picture of horror.  _ I’m sorry you had to see this, kid, _ she thought as she pretended to focus on what her bodyguard was saying.  _ I wish you’d had a few more years of growing up before you saw your first corpse. And I wish it hadn’t been one I’d shot myself. _

* * *

**_2216 CE, Citadel_ **

Lycoris leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes and drawing in a deep breath through her nose. Her eyes hurt, and her temples were throbbing with the start of a headache, but she didn't think it was from the bright, glaring light of her terminal. The headlines she had read on the extranet were still burned into her brain, and no amount of blinking would banish them away:

_ Elaborate Drug Network Unravels on the Citadel: Is Competition from Omega Responsible? _

_ Minagen X3 Explosion in Gozu District, Thirty Killed In Blast _

_ Tools of Terror: Details of Omega's Illegal Arms Deals Revealed _

All different events, only three of many from the past few months, but they had one thing in common—every one involved her father, in some form or another.

Lycoris opened her eyes again, powering down her terminal and turning her chair toward the bed. Part of her wanted to lie down, but she was too wired to stay in one place. Instead, she stared up at the poster above her bed, the one of Justicar Samara in her revealing red armor. The two of them had actually met once, long ago, at Commander Shepard's Citadel apartment. It had been one of her most treasured childhood memories, but her father had been the opposite of thrilled. After a brief nod of acknowledgment, with no words exchanged, she had made her excuses, leaving Lycoris to pummel the Justicar with questions.

Now, she understood why her mother had picked her up from that playdate instead.

She had spent the past several days picking through such memories, trying to figure out how much her father had been hiding from her, and how much she had simply missed due to her own blindness. Sure, there had been whispers—second glances when her father was with her, fearful more often than not—but she hadn't thought too much about them. When it came to people as famous as her parents, the media had a tendency to exaggerate. How many times had she seen Commander Shepard's picture plastered above a completely ridiculous headline, or her mother's? She wasn't naive enough to believe her father was perfect. She had outgrown her child-worship phase at least a decade ago. But seeing that vorcha sprawled in the middle of the road, pleading for his life while her father held him at gunpoint...

The memory came back in a flash, and she felt her stomach lurch.  _ Goddess. There was so much blood... _ Half his face had been hanging off. Short-range pistol shots weren't as pretty as action vids made them out to be.

“Lycoris?” She jumped at the sound of her name, head snapping up to find that her door was open. Her mother was standing at the entrance to her bedroom, wearing a look of concern on her face. “Corrie, are you alright?”

“Mom.” Lycoris took a deep breath, checking the terminal screen even though it was already blank. “Did you knock?”

Tevos slipped into the room, shutting the door behind her. “Several times. I got worried when you didn’t answer.”

Under other circumstances, Lycoris might have been annoyed at the invasion of her personal space, but such intrusions were a rare occurrence, and she was actually glad for her mother’s presence this time. She leaned back in her chair, trying to find the best way to give voice to the tight ball of emotions squeezing inside her chest.

She didn’t have to start the conversation. “You’ve been awfully quiet these past few days,” Tevos said, gliding over to the bed. She perched on its edge, patting the empty space next to her, and after a moment of hesitation, Lycoris joined her. “Athena called earlier, and she told me you weren’t feeling well enough to go to the Presidium with her. Is that true?”

“I’m not sick,” she mumbled, staring down into her lap. “I just don’t want to talk to her right now. It’s not something she did…” She swallowed, trying to get rid of the painful lump forming inside her throat. “Mom, how much does Dad tell you about her job? You know, running Omega?”

Her mother didn’t seem surprised by the question. The expression on her face became one of gentle understanding. “Sometimes more than I wish she would, sometimes less. This is about last week, isn’t it? Aria told me what happened.”

Lycoris couldn’t help being surprised. “She told you? I wasn’t sure she would. I thought she wouldn’t want to scare you…”

Tevos reached over to squeeze the top of her thigh. “It did scare me, but your father isn’t foolish enough to try and keep something that serious from me. We don’t have secrets, not when it comes to your safety.”

“But I don’t understand why she did it,” Lycoris said, letting the words spill out. “When I got there, the only vorcha left didn’t have his weapon. He was begging for his life, and she just…” The image flashed into her brain again, and she felt her stomach lurch. “She shot him. She didn’t even care.”

Her mother’s hand moved to the middle of her back, adding enough pressure to ease some of her nausea. “I won’t pretend I approve of her actions. There’s a reason the Citadel has prisons instead of dispensing capital justice. However, your father has lived a very different life than me—a much harder one, in my estimation. Those experiences have left deep scars. She does what she thinks to needs to in order to protect herself and the people she loves.”

“Why are you defending her?” Lycoris asked. The calm tone of her mother’s voice was niggling at her, stirring up anger she hadn’t known she was dealing with, and she shifted away. “She wasn’t protecting anyone when she killed that vorcha. She had a gun and her biotics, and he didn’t have anything.”

Tevos sighed. “Sometimes, old enemies come back. It’s the reason the Justicar code is so strict. When your father comes home from Omega, ask her to tell you about Oleg Petrovsky.”

Lycoris stiffened at the name. She had heard it before, mostly in whispers when her parents thought she wasn’t listening, and she had seen it in a few old news articles. She knew Aria had killed him. The vid footage of her father breaking through a wall to save her mother was one of the most famous clips to come out of the tumultuous period after the war, and it had transcended the newsfeeds to become a parody of itself.

“I know enough. I know he abducted you, and she killed him for it.”

“That wasn’t her first opportunity. Years earlier, Commander Shepard convinced her to show mercy on him after they reclaimed Omega station from Cerberus forces. Aria listened. It almost ended their friendship, and in her estimation, it almost cost me my life.”

“But she can’t just go around killing everybody!” Lycoris protested, raising her voice louder than she had intended. “When would it stop? Say someone did kill you. Then Dad would kill them, and someone else would kill Dad, and then Aunt Shepard would probably try to kill  _ them _ …”

“You’re right. Killing often leads to more killing. You don’t have to agree with your father’s decisions, Lycoris. I certainly don’t support them all. But you are not a Justicar. You can feel love for your father, and you can also feel empathy for the people she's killed. The world isn’t black and white. ‘Right’ and ‘wrong’ are very often a matter of perspective. But compassion? A desire to do good? That is never misplaced, nor a waste of time.”

Lycoris remained quiet for several moments, unsure what to say. "That's it, I guess," she mumbled at last. "I'm not sure she's trying to do good. And I want my Dad to be someone good. I guess that’s kind of stupid, isn’t it?"

Tevos shook her head. "It isn’t stupid, Corrie. I can’t speak for your father’s past. Aria has been many different people over the centuries. I'm sure there are times when she has killed people out of greed, or a desire for power and control. But the Aria I've known since our bonding does have good in her. I have seen her act with bravery, and nobility, and a desire to help others. I've melded with her so many times, and I'm still not sure how she reconciles it all. But I do know she loves you, and I want  _ you _ to know that it's all right to love someone who isn't perfect." She turned toward the picture of Samara hanging above the desk, staring at it thoughtfully. "A Justicar would look at Aria and see only her sins. As her bondmate, I'm sometimes blinded by her better qualities. In reality, she's somewhere in between... a lot like the people she's killed, I imagine."

"But how do I talk to her about this?" Lycoris asked. "I don't even know how I feel about it, or where to start."

"You talk to her about it slowly, and over a long period of time. This subject will require more than one conversation." Her mother rose from the bed, caressing her shoulder one last time. "You have another day to prepare before she comes home. In the meantime, call Athena back. She's been worried about you."

With that suggestion, Tevos slipped out of the room, leaving her alone once more. Lycoris flopped back onto the bed, staring at her poster for several long moments. Samara's motionless eyes peered down at her, hard and unyielding. After a while, she turned the other way, toward her pillows, and activated her Omnitool, pulling up a familiar number. She would follow her mother's advice and call Athena, but there was someone else she needed to talk to first.

* * *

**_2216 CE, Omega_ **

Aria was just climbing into bed when the band around her wrist buzzed. At first, she was tempted to ignore it—she was already showered and dressed in comfortable clothes, and the past day and a half had been mostly quiet—but when she saw the name flashing on her omnitool screen, her eyes widened.  _ Lycoris. She hasn't called me since I sent her back to the Citadel... _ It had only been a few days since they had last spoken, but somehow, it felt like much longer.

She answered without hesitation, smiling when her daughter's face flickered to life. Lycoris looked a little run-down, but otherwise, not too much different than usual. "Hey. It's late where you are, isn't it?"

Lycoris nodded, giving her a weak smile in return. "Hi, Dad. I couldn't sleep, I guess. When are you coming back to the Citadel?"

"Tomorrow," Aria said. "Are you going to be around?"

Lycoris nodded again. "Yeah. Actually... I was hoping we could talk. About what happened."

Aria pressed her lips together. The request didn't surprise her. She had spent the past several days thinking about it herself.  _ No matter how I choose to raise my kids, it always seems to backfire. I didn't tell anyone Liselle was mine, but I made sure she knew how to take care of herself… not that it did her much good. Everyone knows Lycoris is my daughter, but I kept her out of my business for as long as possible. Guess this is the trade-off. _

"Sure. We can talk."

"I meant when you get home," Lycoris said. There was a rustling sound, and Aria watched her pull up what looked like a comforter beneath her chin. "I don't want to do it this way."

"So why did you call?" Aria asked. "Not that I mind."

"Because I missed you," Lycoris said. "And because..."

Aria waited out the pause, although she was fairly certain what was coming next.

"Because I love you, Dad."

Aria smiled. Lycoris had always taken after Tevos more than her, even if it wasn't visible in her face. "Me too, kid. Me too."


	10. Tooth Fairy [PG]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From a tumblr prompt:
> 
> With Shep being human, I imagine she introduced the berries to a lot of the human holidays and mythical figures. Like the tooth fairy. I'm thinking of her because of how I imagine Athena would have reacted to receiving *money* for losing teeth. Athena is smart enough to realize that the more teeth she... acquires, the more money she has. Of course, I don't think she'd beat anyone up for them, however she does have two younger sisters she could convince to follow her plan plus Corrie. Imagine, the adults walk in to the berries plus maybe Lycoris tying a string to one of Nezzie's teeth to a doorknob or something. Athena having convinced them that they could split the money they would get for teeth. Especially using Corrie who wouldn't have gotten anything for losing any since asari probably don't have a legend about strangers coming into your home and paying for your teeth. I don't know who'd get in more trouble here, Shep or The. Aria'd probably think the whole thing funny.

"Athena? Diana? What in the Goddess's name are you doing?"

Liara stared at her daughters in disbelief, trying to make sense of the bizarre sight before her. Diana stood ramrod straight, holding her arms stiff against her sides. Her eyes were scrunched up tight, and she looked as though she were preparing for a blow. Athena hovered nearby, tying a piece of string to the nightstand drawer. Inexplicably, the other end of the same string disappeared into Diana's wide open mouth.

At the sound of her voice, both girls whipped around, identical expressions of shock on their faces. "Mom!" Athena stammered, dropping the string and stepping away with what Liara could only assume was guilt.

"Mommeh," Diana said, smiling wide. The string still hung down from her chin, swaying along with a considerable amount of drool.

Liara folded her arms across her chest, giving her eldest daughter a stern stare. She had a strong suspicion about what she had stumbled in on, but she wanted to hear it from Athena herself. "Would you care to explain why you're pulling out one of your sister's teeth? That is what you're trying to do, isn't it?"

Athena didn't reply, averting her eyes, but Diana piped up immediately. "We're getting teef for the toof fairy," she said, still drooling and smiling.

Liara heaved a sigh of exasperation. Pieces were coming together in her head, and they didn't tell a pretty story. _Well, I suppose that explains the strange texts from Shepard._ Her bondmate had sent her several interesting tidbits earlier, including but not limited to: 'How many baby teeth do asari usually have?', and 'Which My Little Varren doll did Athena say she wanted again?'

At first, she had considered the human tradition harmless. It had been almost sweet to sneak into Athena's room in the middle of the night and watch Shepard slip a small present or a credit chit beneath her pillow. Unfortunately, Athena seemed to possess an enterprising spirit. She had seen the potential for profit in such an exchange, and had apparently decided her own teeth weren't sufficient to meet her needs.

"Diana saw me getting presents, and she wanted one too," Athena said, swaying with her hands behind her back. "I'm helping her."

"Helping?" Liara repeated, placing a hand on her hip.

Diana nodded. "We're getting a My Little Varren doll!"

Liara took Athena's place in front of her, crouching down to remove the string from her mouth. "We? What do you mean?"

Athena's eyes slid left, toward the far wall. "I get it every other day. For helping."

Liara glanced once more at the drawer. Yanking out Diana's teeth with the nightstand drawer definitely wasn't 'helping', and Athena knew it too, judging by the guilty expression on her face. "You know, your father told me that the tooth fairy doesn't bring dolls or credits for teeth that aren't your own. She doesn't appreciate being fooled."

"Yes, she does!" Athena protested. "She gave me a hundred credits when I used Corrie's tooth..." Her voice trailed off, and Liara saw the exact moment she realized her mistake. Her green eyes grew very wide, and her mouth fell open in a surprised 'O'. "...Oops."

Liara straightened back up, resisting the temptation to cradle her forehead in her hand. _Wonderful. Shepard and I were fooled by a sixteen year old._ "You mean you've been using Lycoris's teeth too? Please tell me you didn't pull them out for her."

Athena shook her head. "No, but it made sense for her to give me her teeth. Her parents are both asari. The tooth fairy only comes if your dad's a human. At least this way we were getting something for them..." Liara gave her a look, and Athena hung her head. "I gave her half the credits," she mumbled, as if that made it better.

Liara sighed. She wanted Shepard's help to deal with this particular infraction, and her bondmate wasn't due home for another hour. In the meantime, it probably wouldn't hurt to let Athena stew over her sins. "Diana, come with me. We're going downstairs to get you cleaned up. Athena, stay in your room until your father gets home. The three of us need to have a talk."

"Okay," Athena said in a small voice. She climbed into her bed, wiggling beneath the covers and reaching for the datapad on her nightstand.

"And no asteroid basher," Liara said, taking the pad from her and tucking it beneath one arm. "You are being punished."

"But  _Mom!_ "

"But nothing. You could have hurt your sister by trying to pull a tooth that wasn't ready to come out. We don't hurt each other in this family. I'll bring your game back later, after your father and I have had a chance to discuss this with you."

Athena stuck out her lower lip, and her eyes filled with tears, but she didn't protest any further. She flopped back on her pillow, staring forlornly at the model spaceship hanging from the ceiling.

With one last look at her sulking eldest daughter, Liara took Diana's hand, leading her out of the room and into the hallway. As soon as she closed the door, however, her wrist buzzed. Shepard's name flashed across her Omnitool, and she opened the message, studying the picture her bondmate had sent. It was a pink My Little Varren doll, along with the caption, ' _Is this the one?'_

Liara paused at the top of the stairs, dropping Diana's hand to send a reply:  _'Get the red and white one. We're giving the toy to Diana instead. Athena is currently being punished for tooth fraud.'_ After a moment's deliberation, she shifted to her contacts list, searching for Aria's number as well. She supposed Lycoris's parents would need to be informed about Athena's scheme, since their daughter's teeth were involved.

_On second thought, I'd better call Tevos. If anything, Aria will probably approve of Athena's business model._


	11. Diana Remembers Ashley [PG-13]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For a friend—a slice of Diana's adult life. Elena is an Alliance soldier, and her squad was working with Diana's unit on... something or other. She's also Latina (just bc I know everyone assumes characters are white until stated otherwise).

"What's this?"

Diana shivered as curious fingers traced across her upper back, following the lines and curves of the letters inked into her skin. She knew the feather-light touches weren't meant to tickle, but she couldn't help squirming anyway. "C'mon.  _ Stop _ it, Elena," she hissed, her voice half-way between a giggle and a groan. She started to flip around, mostly so she could take in Elena's lovely face, but a soft hand on her hip kept her lying in place.

"No, don't move. Please. I wanna see."

Her new lover's soft fingertips continued tracing, and Diana didn't have the heart to stop them. The touch was gentle, but it also sent a sharp pain straight through the middle of her chest, one that lingered like the ache of an old scar wound opening up. She stiffened, and Elena's hand instantly pulled away. Their naked bodies parted, leaving a sticky coat of sweat along Diana's back. A shiver raced down her spine as it began to cool, but the strip of skin where her tattoo was still burned.

"Asari don't usually get their backs done," she mumbled. She knew she didn't have to explain, but some part of her felt compelled to, and the words kept spilling out. "They get traditional family markings on their faces, or patterns they like, but they don't do words."

There was a beat of silence. Then, Elena asked, "So why did you? It's in English, right?" Next came a brief hesitation, just a beat too long. "Old human girlfriend or something?"

Diana knew she might be imagining it, reading too much into things, but she couldn't help wondering if there was a hint of jealousy in Elena's voice. "No, not like you're thinking. But I did get it for a human."

"Your Dad?"

Diana didn't reply right away. She had told Elena some things about her father and her family—it was common knowledge that she was Commander Shepard and Liara T'Soni's daughter—but not everything. Not the important things. Before it had gotten this serious, trivialities had seemed like enough. And Ashley... Ashley was something she had kept to herself these past three years. Talking about her was painful, and Commandos weren't supposed to show pain.

"No, but close." She took a deep breath in through her nose, closing her eyes in an attempt to fight back the sting.  _ "In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance, my head is bloody, but unbowed." _

Elena didn't say anything, but Diana felt the warmth of her lover's palm return to her hip, giving a reassuring squeeze.

"It's for one of my Dad's old crewmates from the war. She was a mentor to me growing up, you know? She had me turn my translator off and taught it to me in English. Said it was her Dad's favorite poem. I guess she wanted to pass it down."

Elena remained silent, giving her space to talk, but the hand stroking up and down her side reassured her that she didn't have to if she didn't want to.

"She was the one who taught me how to shoot. How to fight. She melded with me while I was growing up, and when she did, she shared everything. Goddess..." Images rushed back into her head, of screaming husks and shrieking banshees and corpses piled higher than a person's head. Thanks to Ashley, as well as her parents, she knew that when their history teachers said the Reapers had 'harvested' organic life, they meant it literally.

"Hey."

Diana blinked, returning to the bed to find Elena's warm body pressed up against her back again. Soft lips grazed the nape of her neck, and she sighed.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

But she did want to. For the first time in several years, she wanted to. She  _ needed _ for someone else to know about Ashley besides her family. She needed for someone else to see the face of the woman who was her inspiration. Her teacher. Her best friend. Her third parent. "It's okay. I just...everyone thinks I became a Commando because of my Dad. And yeah, I want to make her proud and live up to her expectations, but she wasn't the reason. Ashley was."

She heard Elena's soft intake of breath in addition to feeling it against her shoulder. "You mean Ashley Williams? The second human SpecTRe? Do you have any idea how famous she still is on Earth? The entire planet and half the colonies went dark on the day of her funeral."

This time, Diana couldn't stop her tears. They leaked from her eyes, leaving hot trails on her cheeks that ran down to pool on top of the pillow. "But she was more than that to me," she whispered. "She was..." But she couldn't find the words. Words couldn't convey how she felt. Instead, she flipped onto her other side, staring into Elena's dark eyes and silently asking permission.

It was granted when Elena cupped her face, wiping the tears away. "You could show me, if you want?"

Diana nodded. The lump in her throat was too thick for an Embrace Eternity, but it didn't matter. Elena's walls were already down, and she accepted the meld without question. Diana tried to take a moment to prepare, to bask in the warmth of her lover's mind, but thoughts of Ashley started crashing over her like waves, swelling up until she couldn't hold them back anymore.

_ Ashley, taking apart a rifle to show her how it worked, explaining every step of the process. _

_ Ashley, running sims with her in Armax Arena and completely kicking her ass—until she finally began to keep up. _

_ Ashley, taking her out on runs on Earth, on the Citadel, on Thessia. _

_ Ashley, a bottle of brandy in one hand, recounting her memories of the war. _

_ Ashley, melding with her, teaching her the human part of her history, reciting poetry... _

_ "Do you know what that verse means, Di? It's about not giving up, no matter how scared you are. It's about taking one more step than you think you can. Life is going to hurt you, but if you're strong, it can't break you." A smile. "I just use poetry because other people say what I want to say better than I do." _

Too much. It's too much. She pulled back, and Elena let her go, and when her vision returned, Diana realized that her lover was crying too. "Shit, I'm sorry," she rasped, unsure whether to swipe away her own tears or Elena's. "This has to be the worst real first time in a bed ever."

"It's not. It's okay. You're okay..." Her brow furrowed with worry, and Diana resisted the impulse to smooth the wrinkle away. "You are okay, right?"

"Do you know why I got the tattoo where I did?" Diana asked, ignoring the question. There was still a hole in her heart where Ashley was supposed to be. "Because this way, it feels like she's always got my back."

Elena laughed, still sniffing awkwardly. "That's adorable. Who knew you were such a sap, T'Soni?"

"Oh, come on. I didn't have you fooled. The minute our units started working together, I'm sure you had me pegged."

"Oh, I had you pegged for something," Elena drawled, and the words sounded only a little forced.

Diana was relieved. The flirting made her hurt less. "Hopefully girlfriend material."

"Yeah," Elena chuckled. "Definitely girlfriend material. Just don't ask me to meet your parents yet. I'm still kind of terrified of the Great Commander Shepard."

"It's my Mom you should be afraid of," Diana said. "Dad's a varren pup."  _ And Ashley isn't around to guard me with her shotgun, although I think she would have liked you. _

"Duly noted." There was another silence, but this time, it wasn't uncomfortable. "Diana?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. For showing me Ashley. The holos don't do her justice."

Diana nodded. "I feel like I should be thanking you, but... you're welcome."


	12. Grapeberry Goes Camping (M)

"But _Dad,_ why do I have to share a tent with Diana? It's not fair. You could have brought four—"

Lycoris slumped in the back seat of the Skycar, only slightly comforted by the feel of Athena's thumb running back and forth over the inside of her sweaty palm. She was already terrified. Who wouldn't be, out in the wilderness on a trip with her girlfriend's overprotective parents? Benezia's whining was just the latest in a series of miserable events—including poorly timed bathroom breaks, inedible rest stop food, and suspicious looks from Shepard whenever they made eye contact.

"We don't need four tents," Shepard insisted from the front passenger's seat, turning around to look at the middle row. From what Lycoris could see from the back, Benezia was currently pouting, and Diana was snoring away with her forehead resting against the window, leaving a slight smear on the glass as her chin sagged lower and lower. "We always bring three, and it's always enough."

Benezia turned to look over the armrest of her seat as well, aiming a glare that Lycoris knew was meant for her. She did her best not to cringe. The T'Soni-Shepard family had invited her along on camping trips before, but she had always made excuses not to go, despite her desire to spend as much time with Athena as possible. Lycoris wasn't particularly fond of anyplace more outdoorsy than the Presidium gardens, and her parents were known urbanites. She felt much more at home under the glaring white lights of the Citadel, or even in Omega's dingy back alleys. Being surrounded by forest without a single building in sight seemed ironically unnatural.

At Benezia's annoyed look, Athena retaliated by raising her middle finger—a human gesture it had taken Lycoris an embarrassingly long time to connect with its origin. Benezia huffed, as if to continue complaining, but was cut off.

"Benezia, don't be rude," Liara said from the driver’s seat, not even taking her eyes away from the road. "When you have a significant other of your own, I'm sure you'll want to bring them along on our trips too. Besides, Lycoris was a part of the family before she became Athena's girlfriend. You can suffer through two nights in the same tent as Diana this time."

"But _Mom_ ," Benezia whined, still far from pacified, "she _snores_."

Right on cue, Diana let out a loud, snuffling snort and adjusted herself against the window.

"Ugh, I'm not gonna get any sleep."

"Diana's the one I feel sorry for," Athena muttered, loud enough for Benezia to hear. "She has to share a tent with _you._  I'd take snoring over your whining any day."

"Girls, stop it," Shepard said, in a firm voice that brooked no argument. "We only have five minutes left to the campground. Try not to murder each other before then. Once we unpack, the two of you can go kill each other in the woods for all I care."

"Shepard," Liara sighed, and Lycoris couldn't tell if her tone was reproachful, amused, or both.

"Hey, that's what these trips are for. Let 'em burn off a little of that sibling rivalry by warping each other out of trees and biotic charging through the lake. We were young once, right? You remember how it is."

"I am still young, Shepard. I'm only two hundred and four. You, however, are old for your species—much too old to be encouraging our daughters to fight with each other. You should know better."

Shepard grumbled in response, and Lycoris grinned a little when she saw Liara lean across the gap between their seats to kiss the Commander’s cheek. She snuggled closer into Athena's side, whispering beside her crest. "That's gonna be us one day, The. Old and married and boring."

"Old and married, maybe," Athena whispered back, "but _never_ boring."

Soft lips grazed the base of her throat, and Lycoris shuddered at the unexpected heat, stifling a groan. It was true that Athena was often 'amorous' around her, but this was a little much, trapped in the car with Shepard and Liara right in the front seat. She swallowed and shifted away, gazing into Athena's eyes to make sure her girlfriend saw her reluctance.

"Later," she mouthed, half of her hoping Athena wouldn't push, and the other half wishing she would.

Athena's tongue peeked out to roll over her full bottom lip, and her eyes gleamed a shade darker than usual. "Definitely later," she murmured back.

 _I meant later, after this camping trip,_ Lycoris wanted to say, but she knew this wasn't the place for that particular argument. She and Athena would have plenty of time to talk later, in their own private tent... _Our own private tent. Oh shit. And I bet Shepard's gonna put hers right next to ours, just to make sure we don't fool around on the family vacation._ Although Shepard no longer buried her head in the sand and pretended their sexual relationship wasn't happening, Lycoris knew Athena's father wasn't thrilled about it, either. She wouldn't outright object, especially while Liara was around, but...

 _The woods is a great place to bury a body, isn't it?_ She folded her hands demurely in her lap, in plain view just in case Shepard decided to check the rearview mirror. _Oh shit. What did I agree to?_

* * *

What she had agreed to, it turned out, was half an hour of sweating and swearing over the old-fashioned tents Shepard had insisted on and much more of Benezia's whining. Setting up the campground was awkward enough under those circumstances, but Athena's hands were there to make things even more difficult, the gooey, melting icing on a very miserable cake. Every time Lycoris bent over, it seemed that her lover was groping some sensitive area—especially her ass. Whenever she stood, Athena took the opportunity to brush and arch deliberately against her, lighting her nerves on fire.

Lycoris wasn't sure which upset her more—the fact that Shepard was giving them looks, or that Athena's all too obvious attempts at seduction were working anyway. She hadn't known it was possible to be so aroused and terrified at the same time, but apparently...

"That's it, I'm done with this," Benezia declared, throwing down the stake she had been about to use. "I'm going for a dip in the lake to cool off. See you losers later."

"Hold on a second," Diana said, picking up the stake and driving it into the ground. Benezia's tent was a little lopsided, but it was, at least, standing. "I'll come with. Race ya." She was off like a shot, running through the forest toward what Lycoris assumed had to be a lake somewhere ahead.

Benezia rolled her eyes. "I don't know why she thinks I’m gonna race a Vanguard anywhere." The very picture of offended dignity, she picked her way out of the clearing, heading along the messy path Diana had left at a much more moderate pace. Half way into the trees, she turned to look over her shoulder. "You two coming, or are you gonna _stay behind?"_

The implication was obvious, and Lycoris felt a fresh coat of sweat break out on the back of her neck when she realized that Shepard and Liara were a few yards away, listening to the conversation with apparent interest. "We'll come," Lycoris squeaked, giving Shepard what she hoped was an innocent, non-threatening grin. _Shit. Did I say come? Poor choice of words._ "I, uh... I'm hot... um, it's hot... I could... swim, I can..."

Fortunately, her girlfriend took pity on her. "Yes, we know you can swim," Athena said, taking her hand and hauling her off. "You're a regular fish, with all the floundering you're doing."

"Not my fault," Lycoris protested once they were far enough from the campground. "You kept touching my butt and pressing your boobs into my back. _In front of your Dad._ How do you expect me to keep my composure?"

"You're gonna have to keep it a little longer," Athena teased, gazing at her with dark, half-lidded eyes and adding a deliberate sway to her hips. "Because none of us packed swimsuits, and even though we're definitely fucking on this trip, I'm not doing it in front of my sisters."

Lycoris's jaw dropped. _Oh shit. I did_ not _think this through._ Swimming naked was never a big deal among her people, and her family had even gone to the beach with Athena's before, but this... this was different. Athena had set out to seduce her today, and she had a feeling this wouldn't be a normal dip. She allowed herself to be tugged the rest of the way to the lake, whimpering helplessly with both desire and apprehension.

When they arrived at the lake, Diana and Benezia were already in the water—or, rather, Diana was in the water and Benezia was prowling along the edge of the dock like a nervous varren. Seeing them naked didn't leave Lycoris feeling particularly embarrassed, although she did laugh when she saw Benezia's face scrunch up as she dipped a toe in to test the temperature.

"Cold?" Lycoris asked, letting go of Athena's hand. Hers was already far too hot and sticky.

Benezia's unhappy expression said it all.

"Oh, come on," Diana hollered from a few yards out. She bobbed up and down, treading water with steady strokes. "Just get it over with fast. It's not that cold."

"Shut up. Not _all_ of us want to splash everyone with biotic cannonballs, okay?"

A smirk spread across Athena's face, and Lycoris took a hurried step back, knowing what was coming next. With a whoop of excitement, Athena took off toward the dock, glowing blue as she leapt into the water. Her charge didn't have the same natural speed as Diana's, but it still got a fair amount of distance as she sailed through the air and plunged into the middle of the lake. A large wave rolled out from the point of impact, and Benezia yelped as it splashed at her legs. "Ugh! I hate you two. Why did you do that?"

"Oh, sis, we haven't even gotten started," Athena said. She and Diana shared a look, and even from a distance, Lycoris could tell they were plotting something devious. They both dove under the water at the same time, leaving Benezia to gaze out over the water with a slightly panicked expression.

"All right, this isn't funny. What are you—argh!"

Lycoris couldn't suppress a bark of laughter as two sets of arms shot out of the water, grabbing Benezia's calves and dragging her feet-first into the lake. She emerged a moment later, drenched and shuddering, splashing wildly at both of them. After that, it was an all-out war. Lycoris decided it was probably a good idea to join the fray before she got dragged into it, and so she charged for the dock herself, leaping into the lake and splashing all three of them at once.

"About time," Athena said, swimming over to her and taking refuge by her side. "We need backup!"

Realizing she was severely outnumbered, Benezia stopped splashing and started bargaining. "Diana, if you help me get Athena, I promise not to complain to you for the rest of the trip and give you all my marshmallows."

"You don't even like marshmallows," Diana pointed out. She sent another wave at Benezia, causing her to float backwards for several feet. "And aren't you still pissed at me for pulling you into the water?"

"It was The's idea," Benezia said. "I want _revenge._ "

"Uh oh," Athena muttered, sensing inevitable betrayal. "Lycoris, take cover! We're about to take some heavy fire!"

Lycoris dove, but not fast enough. Another tsunami crashed over her, slapping her straight in the face and filling her mouth with water. She summoned her own biotics, preparing to launch a counterstrike. Camping might not be her thing, but she wasn't about to let Diana and Benezia take Athena down without a fight, either. She had her future bondmate’s honor to defend.

* * *

"Well, look what the cat dragged in," Commander Shepard drawled as they all trudged back into the campsite, dripping wet beneath their clothes and slumped over with exhaustion.

Lycoris's brow furrowed, but Athena clarified before she could ask. "Earth animal, English expression. She's saying we all look like shit."

That was hard to deny. They had done their best to dry off, but in their infinite wisdom, they had forgotten to bring towels, and the sun could only do so much on its own. Eventually, they had been forced to pull on their clothes anyway and deal with the uncomfortably clinging fabric. _Leather and water don't mix. Next time I'm going with some of those 'jeans' Shepard is wearing._

"You all look like you could use something to eat," Liara said with a warm smile. "Dinner isn't ready yet, but we can always make some—"

"S'mores!" Benezia cheered. "Where're the graham crackers?"

Diana rolled her eyes. "What you eat isn't even a real s'more. You don't like marshmallows. You just put a piece of chocolate between the crackers and call it good."

"I like chocolate, okay?" Benezia said with wounded dignity. Liara offered her a bag, and she began rummaging almost immediately. "There we go! Chocolate." Without offering to share, she hurried over to sit by one of the logs on the fire and started ripping open packaging. "Did you know graham crackers were invented by some weird human off his rocker who was trying to make people not have sex drives? Dad told me that once."

"It's an interesting bit of human trivia." Shepard took some of the materials from Benezia's bags, and Lycoris swallowed as the Commander passed them over to her. With the amount of play dates she'd had at the various T'Soni-Shepard residences growing up, she knew what the human foods were without being told, but she still blanched as Shepard gave her a look. "Here, Lycoris. Have some crackers."

 _"Shepard,"_ Liara said with a disapproving look.

"Oh, come on, Liara..."

"It's not me you have to worry about," Lycoris mumbled under her breath. Somehow, Athena's hand had found its way into her back pocket, and it was doing _very_ distracting things.

"What was that, dear?" Liara asked, momentarily distracted from her whisper-fight with Shepard.

"Nothing, Mom." Athena tucked her head over Lycoris's shoulder, placing the softest of kisses against her neckfolds and giving another firm squeeze for good measure. "Nothing at all..."

"Then stop feeling up your girlfriend and come roast some marshmallows," Diana hollered. She had taken the spot beside Benezia, and was currently holding a marshmallow over the fire on a long stick.

"That can't be sanitary," Lycoris said, and Athena laughed, warm breath hitting her ear.

"Well, if you'd rather eat something else later, I'm sure we could arrange it..."

Lycoris's eyes darted nervously over to Shepard and Liara, but fortunately, they didn't appear to be listening. Instead, they were preparing sticks of their own to hold over the fire. "We're not having sex on this trip," she hissed back to Athena, trying to put a little more distance between their bodies. They fit together too well, and it was making her uncomfortable in both good and bad ways.

"We'll see." She felt the brief pinch of Athena's teeth on her shoulder, so quick she was almost sure she'd imagined it, and then her lover peeled away from her, striding off to join her family around the campfire.

With a sigh, Lycoris followed. Athena always got her way, and she suspected it was only a matter of time before she found herself in a very embarrassing situation.

* * *

"And then, I started to step away—"

"She was muttering the stupidest excuses about 'two years' and 'we're different people', so I just..."

"She put her hand on my waist and pulled me back, and suddenly, we were kissing."

"With a dead yahg on the floor?" Benezia's face scrunched up in disgust. "Ew. What was _wrong_ with you two while you were dating? Haven't you ever heard of going out to dinner like normal people?"

"Well, it was during the war. There weren't many opportunities for us to go out on proper dates." Liara gave Shepard a sidelong look. "There was an incident at an upscale sushi restaurant about eight months later..."

Shepard grinned, completely unrepentant. "I was having a bad day, okay? A fact you were quick to remind me of once you got there. Late, I might add. And I wasn't the one who shot the place up!"

On Shepard's other side, Diana swiped at her face with her sleeve, the firelight revealing a hint of wetness in her eyes. "That's a beautiful story," she sniffed, propping her cheek up on Shepard's shoulder.

"What, the sushi restaurant?" Benezia asked.

"No, stupid! The story about Mom and Dad working together to bring down the bad guy and then kissing after two years apart."

"You've heard it like a hundred times before," Benezia protested. "I don't see what's so special about..."

Lycoris wasn't listening. The stories were actually pretty interesting, but not quite interesting enough to compete with the hand creeping up along her thigh. She had been grateful when Athena had grabbed one of the thick blankets from their tent to wrap around their legs, but now she knew her girlfriend's true motives. With their laps covered, Athena had created a perfect opportunity to continue groping her without getting caught.

"That's going to be us one day," Athena whispered in her ear. "Bringing down mercs as a badass power couple...but we'll do more than make out afterward."

"No more mercs," Lycoris whispered back, subtly trying to peel Athena's fingers away from her leg without shifting too much under the blanket. "Almost dying once was enough."

Athena's hand moved higher, tracing the crease where her leg joined her pelvis. Even through her pants, the touch tickled, and Lycoris fought not to squirm. "No one's gonna kill you, Corrie. I'm the only one who knows all your weak spots..."

The hand on Lycoris's inner thigh moved to cup between her legs, and she nearly fell backwards off the log. "Stop it," she hissed, squeezing her legs shut and instinctively glancing over at Shepard. Luckily, the Commander was still wrapped up in conversation with Liara and Athena's sisters, and hadn't appeared to notice.

At being asked to stop, Athena immediately removed her hand, a guilty look crossing her face. "I'm sorry, Corrie," she said, not pouting, but sincere. "I shouldn't have pushed. I don't want to make you uncomfortable—"

Lycoris caught Athena's hand beneath the blanket, resting it in safer territory on top of her knee. "It's okay. I didn't mean to snap. It's just...your dad is _right there._  And even though my dad always says she's a terrible shot, I'm pretty sure she has a gun stashed around here somewhere and that she could hit me with it."

"My dad isn't going to shoot you," Athena insisted. "But you're probably right. We should wait until later."

Lycoris gulped. "Later?" _Later tonight, or later after this camping trip?_

She wasn't sure whether to be excited or terrified.

* * *

As it turned out, 'later' didn't happen for quite a while. Lycoris held Athena's hand beneath the blanket as Shepard and Liara reminisced, but aside from a few gentle strokes across the side of her palm with a wandering thumb, her lover made no more attempts to grope her. Gradually, she began to feel more comfortable—comfortable enough to wrap an arm around Athena's shoulder and show that all was forgiven. She felt Athena sigh with relief against her side, and her own muscles released some of their tension as well.

"...and then she told me, 'I knew it was really you the first time I touched you again.'" Shepard reached out to squeeze Liara's arm, and the two of them gazed adoringly into each other's eyes.

"Gross," Benezia scoffed, at the same time Diana started sniffing again.

"Come on, that was sweet, Nezzie," Diana protested. "It's like a vid or something."

"It's our _parents,"_  Benezia said, not at all mollified. "I mean, I'm glad they met and all, or the fabulousness that is me wouldn't exist, but I don't need to hear about all the times they made out in between dying."

"I think it's beautiful," Lycoris said, speaking up for the first time in a while. Watching the way Shepard and Liara interacted reminded her of her own parents, and made her feel hopeful about her future with Athena. It was reassuring, knowing that couples could make it through something as traumatic as a war and come out even stronger on the other side.

Shepard gave her a grin. "Thanks, Lycoris. I think I'm pretty good-looking myself."

Benezia and Athena both groaned, while Diana let out a snort and Liara rolled her eyes. "Shepard..."

"What? Admit it. You married me for my bad jokes, not because we saved the galaxy together."

"That's enough parental interaction for one night," Benezia sighed, rising from her place beside the fire. "I'm going to bed before Diana beats me to sleep and starts snoring." She padded over, placing a dutiful kiss on each parent's head before heading toward her tent.

Diana stood up to follow her, grinning a little evilly as she bid Shepard and Liara goodnight as well. "She'd better hope she brought earplugs," she teased, giving both of them big hugs. "And I'm on breakfast tomorrow, so you can stay up as late as you want and gaze at the stars or whatever."

"Speaking of stars," Athena said, "I think Corrie and I are going to go walk by the lake before bed. Is that okay?"

_Wait, we are?_

A nervous flutter started in Lycoris's stomach, but she didn't get a chance to sort through it before Shepard's forehead wrinkled. "This late? Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Let them go, Shepard," Liara said, coming to their defense. Shepard opened her mouth, probably to protest, but Liara cupped her cheek, drawing her in and whispering something inaudible beside her ear. A smile spread across Shepard's face, and with a sigh, she nodded her permission.

"Fine. Get out of here, you crazy kids. Just don't spend too long in the woods. It's getting dark out there."

It was already dark, but Lycoris didn't argue the point as Athena pulled her to her feet and started dragging her away from camp. "We won't. Good night, Mom and Dad!"

They stumbled off into the woods together, Athena leading the way, Lycoris following somewhat reluctantly behind. She had a pretty good idea what her girlfriend wanted to sneak off and do, and she wasn’t sure she was okay with it. Seeing Athena naked and all the touching had gotten her more than a little worked up, but knowing that Shepard was nearby put a serious damper on her libido.

“Look,” she whispered once they were alone in the dark, “I don't wanna piss you off..."

"If anything, you should be pissed off at me." Athena stopped abruptly, turning toward her and taking her other hand as well. "Corrie, I'm so sorry. I touched you even though I knew you were uncomfortable with it, and I was ignoring your signals. That was a shitty thing to do. I want you to have fun on this camping trip, and I don't want to embarrass you in front of my parents."

Lycoris blinked, taken aback by the apology, but grateful nonetheless. _There's the best friend I've always known,_ she thought, smiling with relief. The weight of Athena's expectations lifted from her shoulders, and she heaved a deep sigh. "Thanks. I guess I could have been a bit clearer—"

"No," Athena objected, shaking her head. "You said 'stop'. That's more than enough. I'm really, really sorry..." Her voice rose in pitch, growing increasingly frantic, and Lycoris hurried to pull one of her hands free so she could cup her lover's cheek.

"Hey, it's okay, The. You stopped when I said stop, and you said you were sorry. As long as you stop feeling me up in front of your family, we're good. I forgive you."

"Thanks. Can I...can I hug you?" Athena dug her teeth softly into the curve of her lower lip, green eyes shining with hope.

Lycoris grinned. "You don't have to ask for hugs. C'mere." She dragged Athena into her arms, squeezing her tight and pressing a kiss on top of her crest. "And it's not like I hated all the touching, either." Athena let out a puff of laughter against her neck, and Lycoris's face flushed hot at the ticklish sensation. Athena's curves fit wonderfully against hers, and she was starting to remember how good it felt to hold her when judgmental eyes weren't watching. "It would have been really nice if your dad wasn't around..."

"Yeah," Athena murmured, sounding only a little wistful. "Maybe the two of us will have to go on a camping trip of our own someday. Just you and me, under the stars..."

"I like having your family around," Lycoris protested. But as she looked down at Athena's face, open and beautiful and glowing faintly in the soft dapples of moonlight breaking through the canopy above, she couldn't help wishing for the same thing. "You know, it _is_ just you and me under the stars right now. Your Dad isn't here..."

Athena's eyes widened in surprise, and she made as if to pull back. "Really, Corrie, it's okay. You don't have to just because I—"

"It's not that I don't want to embrace eternity," Lycoris insisted, growing more sure of her decision by the moment. "I just didn't like your Dad watching us. And she isn't watching us right now. So...maybe we can actually go to the lake and make out? And, you know, see where it goes? I am kind of curious whether doing it outside is as romantic as everyone says, or whether you just end up with dirt and leaves up your ass."

"That's the most romantic thing you've said so far to me today," Athena snorted, shaking her head in disbelief. But then she surged up, and Lycoris found her lips caught in a soft, gentle kiss. "That sounds like a plan," Athena murmured into her mouth, not quite giving it up. "And this time, if you say stop, I'll stop right away, no questions asked."

Lycoris smiled, wrapping her hand around the back of Athena's neck for another, deeper kiss. She believed every word Athena said, and she wasn't the least bit embarrassed anymore.

* * *

"Are you sure we shouldn't go check on them?" Shepard asked, shifting nervously on the log and peering out into the trees. "They've been gone a pretty long time."

Liara sighed, stroking a soothing hand along Shepard's arm. She could feel the tense, defined muscle of her bondmate's bicep through the sleeves of her shirt, and she started squeezing, making an effort to soften it. "They're fine, Shepard. You remember what it was like, don't you? Stolen moments, kisses in exotic locations..."

"They're probably doing more than kissing," Shepard mumbled, but Liara didn't let her get away with it.

"And our exotic locations were usually deadly," she said as a reminder, resting her chin on Shepard's shoulder. "They're young and in love, and they haven't even seen a fragment of what life has to offer yet. You can't keep Athena under your wing forever."

"You're starting to sound like a calmer, less profane version of Aethyta," Shepard said, but she relaxed back on the log, letting her shoulders slump. "Okay, okay, you're right. They've been sharing a room at college. It's not like I can keep pretending they aren't having sex. It's just..." Her eyes flicked down into her lap, but not before Liara caught a hint of sadness in them. "She's all grown up now, Li. And Diana's almost there too. In a few years, all three of them will be gone from the nest. I'm starting to feel kind of old, you know?"

"Not that old." She slid a hand up along Shepard's thigh, cupping just above her knee. "Besides, Miranda says your biotic implants may give you several hundred more years. This is more time than we ever expected to have together during the war..."

"I know," Shepard said, and a small smile spread across her face. "I'm pretty sure I'm not going anywhere, but I bet all parents feel this way at one point or another. It's kind of sad, watching your kids grow up and start to fend for themselves. At some point, you've just gotta let 'em go."

Liara abandoned Shepard's knee and stroked the side of her face instead, gazing up into the beautiful green eyes she had fallen in love with. "They'll always need you, Shepard. Just like I do."

"You still need me, huh?" Shepard asked, perking up once more. A grin stretched across her face, putting her freckles on prominent display in the firelight, along with a few subtle crow's feet. "Bad jokes and all?"

"Bad jokes and all." Liara glanced over toward their tent, which was positioned quite a bit further away than the other two their children were going to inhabit. "Although if you're feeling up for it, I might be able to think of a few better uses for your mouth..."

Shepard's eyebrows lifted in clear interest. "Is that so, Miss Shadow Broker? In that case, you might need to explain them to me."

"Oh, I will," Liara said, combing her fingers through Shepard's hair and drawing her in for a kiss. _"_ _Very_ thoroughly. Perhaps even several times."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Models and Glue](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6263404) by [BlueRaith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueRaith/pseuds/BlueRaith)




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